Chapter 18 - The Disciple and Unbelievers
Bonhoeffer- 'Any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close to the love of sin.
But the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation of sin, is his expression of extreme hatred of sin.
The disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally. Thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously and conditionally offered love never could achieve, namely the radical condemnation of sin.'
My thoughts-
Think about this a moment, don't just read the words and let them skip over you as if you're skipping stones across a small brook to the other side- touching the water, but never really sinking in.
Truly if our love for anyone else is a love that is not of Christ, it is close to the love of sin. Any love that doesn't stem from Christ, is a perverted love. If any of our love come from any other source whatsoever it's sin, right?
God is love.
1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
If God is love- our love must be God's love if it's a REAL love and not something mankind has manufactured with the help of Satan taking love and making it into something evil at it's very core- selfishness, prideful.
The very closest, I believe, a person can feel, a love that is a tendril of God's true love, is the love of a parent for a child, and a child for a parent. I say tendril because so much of all love even love of parents for children and children for parents is selfish and prideful, sinful.
I'm sure there are people reading this (well, sure as I can imagine- if people are reading this) that there are some who think I'm crazy for saying this, because they can't imagine a love a mother has for a child being anything but genuine and natural, something we call normal. We are shocked and dismayed when we read of mothers abusing their children, mothers abandoning their children, mothers hating their children, because we somehow believe there HAS to be a natural mother's love that would only protect and care for their child. Love by our God's definition is NOT the love of a mother for a child- it is GOD HIMSELF. And like it or not, if any love a mother has for their child is NOT coming from their love of God, then there is a very good chance that mother's love is something manufactured and even if it appears to be genuine in all respects- it can't be at its heart. What it can be is a magnificent counterfeit- so magnificent that none can tell the difference, but it cannot be real.
We as a people have truly fooled ourselves into believing love is all sorts of things, and this belief has colored God's love into something too often abhorred rather than desired.
When God tells us to love Him and to love Others He is telling us to treat them as He has commanded us to treat them, as HE treats them, unselfishly, caring for them more than self even unto death because we care so much.
Can you imagine choosing to die for someone who hates you, dying for someone who has despised you and has constantly chosen to do things that hurt you? Can you imagine doing that because you love the one who hates you, not caring that they hate you and hurt you, but wanting to sacrifice yourself for them with the HOPE they'll accept that sacrifice and understand your love?
We can truly scarcely begin to comprehend what LOVE is, because our twisted idea of love is what we cling to. And we mostly cling to love as something that selfishly benefits us in some way. Is it any wonder it's so easy for people to divorce when their love is a purely fabricated love and not real at all, not stemming from God who is Love!
The Bible tells us this…
Mat_24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
That love is waxing cold because is stems from SIN and not from God at all!
God's love is a love choosing to die for one who is completely at odds with you. We can't imagine that can we? And before you say that you can, tell me, would you give all your worldly goods to one who hated you? If that person came to you and told you to give them all your money, would you? We're talking money, not your life, but money. If they told you to give them their car, would you? If you can't even give them all your worldly possessions how can you say you'd be willing to die for them?
If we are not willing to give up all for each other, we are not in possession of Christ's love. If we value our money and possessions more than we value another's life, even that life of one we'd consider most unworthy, then how can we love with God's love? How? That is HIS love! Sacrifice, and yet we do SO LITTLE sacrificing!
Remember this--
Mar 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
Mar 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
Mar 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
Mar 12:44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Can we even imagine such sacrifice? Truly, can we?
Bonhoeffer-'Any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close to the love of sin.'
MISGUIDED love for the sinner- OMINOUSLY close to the LOVE of SIN.
Bonhoeffer- 'But the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation of sin, is his expression of extreme hatred of sin.
The disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally. Thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously and conditionally offered love never could achieve, namely the radical condemnation of sin.'
TRUTH!
Christ's love is all that Christ is and Christ HATES sin! Sin is to be destroyed! Sin warrants death it's so evil and despised. Sin is to be done away with forever! Christ's very life is a testament to the evil of sin. He became Human and DIED to save us from the evil of sin.
It can be nothing but the truth- that Christ's love is the condemnation of all sin.
We are to LOVE unconditionally as we are loved by CHRIST, accepting HIS condemnation and hatred of sin as ours. We accept that HE and HE alone has the right to judge because He is the ONLY ONE who has ever and will ever conquered SIN. It's through HIS righteousness we can live, that we are given His power by the Holy Spirit. We are to LOVE unconditionally and let HIM be the JUDGE while we forever remain the disciples of the JUDGE.
Loving unconditionally.
Loving without conditions.
Loving - hearts breaking when others refuse the love of Christ, no condemnation, no hatred, no judging of them, loving them.
By His GRACE!
By His MERCY!
In His LOVE!
In His RIGHTEOUSNESS!
All in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior now and forever!
Bonhoeffer- 'Any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close to the love of sin.
But the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation of sin, is his expression of extreme hatred of sin.
The disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally. Thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously and conditionally offered love never could achieve, namely the radical condemnation of sin.'
My thoughts-
Think about this a moment, don't just read the words and let them skip over you as if you're skipping stones across a small brook to the other side- touching the water, but never really sinking in.
Truly if our love for anyone else is a love that is not of Christ, it is close to the love of sin. Any love that doesn't stem from Christ, is a perverted love. If any of our love come from any other source whatsoever it's sin, right?
God is love.
1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16
If God is love- our love must be God's love if it's a REAL love and not something mankind has manufactured with the help of Satan taking love and making it into something evil at it's very core- selfishness, prideful.
The very closest, I believe, a person can feel, a love that is a tendril of God's true love, is the love of a parent for a child, and a child for a parent. I say tendril because so much of all love even love of parents for children and children for parents is selfish and prideful, sinful.
I'm sure there are people reading this (well, sure as I can imagine- if people are reading this) that there are some who think I'm crazy for saying this, because they can't imagine a love a mother has for a child being anything but genuine and natural, something we call normal. We are shocked and dismayed when we read of mothers abusing their children, mothers abandoning their children, mothers hating their children, because we somehow believe there HAS to be a natural mother's love that would only protect and care for their child. Love by our God's definition is NOT the love of a mother for a child- it is GOD HIMSELF. And like it or not, if any love a mother has for their child is NOT coming from their love of God, then there is a very good chance that mother's love is something manufactured and even if it appears to be genuine in all respects- it can't be at its heart. What it can be is a magnificent counterfeit- so magnificent that none can tell the difference, but it cannot be real.
We as a people have truly fooled ourselves into believing love is all sorts of things, and this belief has colored God's love into something too often abhorred rather than desired.
When God tells us to love Him and to love Others He is telling us to treat them as He has commanded us to treat them, as HE treats them, unselfishly, caring for them more than self even unto death because we care so much.
Can you imagine choosing to die for someone who hates you, dying for someone who has despised you and has constantly chosen to do things that hurt you? Can you imagine doing that because you love the one who hates you, not caring that they hate you and hurt you, but wanting to sacrifice yourself for them with the HOPE they'll accept that sacrifice and understand your love?
We can truly scarcely begin to comprehend what LOVE is, because our twisted idea of love is what we cling to. And we mostly cling to love as something that selfishly benefits us in some way. Is it any wonder it's so easy for people to divorce when their love is a purely fabricated love and not real at all, not stemming from God who is Love!
The Bible tells us this…
Mat_24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
That love is waxing cold because is stems from SIN and not from God at all!
God's love is a love choosing to die for one who is completely at odds with you. We can't imagine that can we? And before you say that you can, tell me, would you give all your worldly goods to one who hated you? If that person came to you and told you to give them all your money, would you? We're talking money, not your life, but money. If they told you to give them their car, would you? If you can't even give them all your worldly possessions how can you say you'd be willing to die for them?
If we are not willing to give up all for each other, we are not in possession of Christ's love. If we value our money and possessions more than we value another's life, even that life of one we'd consider most unworthy, then how can we love with God's love? How? That is HIS love! Sacrifice, and yet we do SO LITTLE sacrificing!
Remember this--
Mar 12:41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.
Mar 12:42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
Mar 12:43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:
Mar 12:44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Can we even imagine such sacrifice? Truly, can we?
Bonhoeffer-'Any misguided love for the sinner is ominously close to the love of sin.'
MISGUIDED love for the sinner- OMINOUSLY close to the LOVE of SIN.
Bonhoeffer- 'But the love of Christ for the sinner in itself is the condemnation of sin, is his expression of extreme hatred of sin.
The disciples of Christ are to love unconditionally. Thus they may effect what their own divided and judiciously and conditionally offered love never could achieve, namely the radical condemnation of sin.'
TRUTH!
Christ's love is all that Christ is and Christ HATES sin! Sin is to be destroyed! Sin warrants death it's so evil and despised. Sin is to be done away with forever! Christ's very life is a testament to the evil of sin. He became Human and DIED to save us from the evil of sin.
It can be nothing but the truth- that Christ's love is the condemnation of all sin.
We are to LOVE unconditionally as we are loved by CHRIST, accepting HIS condemnation and hatred of sin as ours. We accept that HE and HE alone has the right to judge because He is the ONLY ONE who has ever and will ever conquered SIN. It's through HIS righteousness we can live, that we are given His power by the Holy Spirit. We are to LOVE unconditionally and let HIM be the JUDGE while we forever remain the disciples of the JUDGE.
Loving unconditionally.
Loving without conditions.
Loving - hearts breaking when others refuse the love of Christ, no condemnation, no hatred, no judging of them, loving them.
By His GRACE!
By His MERCY!
In His LOVE!
In His RIGHTEOUSNESS!
All in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior now and forever!
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