“Love" is one of the most misused and corrupted words in the English vocabulary. Very often when evangelizing, I have to give the correct definitions to a whole host of words, including the word, “love.“ The word "love" originates from the Bible. Changing the meaning of words is a way to corrupt the teaching of scripture, but its also a main strategy of postmodernism and critical theory, that says there is power in vocabulary. The Bible itself talks about changing the meaning of words, done to fool people. It is evil, done by evil people. Many words are being changed today, including by professing Christians, that oppose faith and obedience to scripture.
“Changed" is actually a soft word to describe what they do. They are despicably corrupt, twisting, and perverting scripture, changing the meaning of words that God has defined. Isaiah 5:20 says,
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!"
Peter warns that wresting Scripture is an “error of the wicked” (2 Pet 3:16-17), and redefining words is certainly wresting scripture, for it changes the meaning of scripture.
In the Garden of Eden, God said one thing, and Satan immediately said something different that made Eve feel like Satan loved her more than God did. God said, “Thou shalt surely die.” Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die.” They couldn't both be right. Which do you think is more popular? Satan then ripped on God about how unloving He was: “God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." God is just ripping you off, trying to bring you down, Eve. Doesn't Satan sound loving to Eve? Why don't you all send a comment to Eve on her twitter feed. She's been attacked by God so why not join Satan and let her know how much you love her at this time of personal attack. Today she would get hundreds of likes and dozens of supportive comments. It's no wonder that Noah and his family got only eight people to be on the ark, even after over a hundred years of preaching.
Scripture says, “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8, 16). Love is an attribute of God, so love is who God is. That also means God defines love. Love is obviously important in scripture, because it is the first and second greatest commandments of God, first, love God, and second, love your neighbour. The entire law of God is wrapped up or summarized in those two commandments of God. Truly saved people illustrate and live these commandments. When God converts the sinner, He circumcises his or her heart from the flesh and causes them to love Him (De 30:6; Col 2:10-15) and the brethren (1 Th 4:9). Gods love is shed abroad in the saints heart by the Holy Ghost (Rom 5:5) Who is given to them at conversion.
When someone does something extreme with their money, like give large chunks away, or with their time, sacrificially working the soup line or the food bank, the common theme heard is that such and such a person is the most loving person they know. How would someone know that? What would characterize the most loving person someone knows? The saved individual would go to scripture to make that assessment, because God is love. Since God is love, He defines love. If someone uses his own definition, like Satan did with Eve, then he's just a deceiver, using the term for his own purpose.
Today, some of the words that define the way the world uses love, that conflicts with what scripture says, are toleration, feelings, niceness, fun, and lust. These words all easily conform to the world system. This is a removal of God out of the definition and changing the definition based on the perspective of the subject, or in other words, a subjective definition. It is rebellious, calling good evil and evil good, but it is postmodern too. The corruption of love relates to a perversion of values that ignores the true God of scripture. New values, contradicting scripture, are wellness, self-love, or self-care.
Someone is doing wrong, violating scripture, embracing false doctrine, sinning, rebelling against God, or transgressing God's law, and someone disapproves. Someone else states the disapproval. “Loving” people come to the rescue of the “offended.” Disapproval brings self-loathing, depression, and maybe even suicidal thoughts (see here for help on the latter: Do People that Commit Suicide go to Heaven). It causes a loss of endorphins, which brings stress and severe headaches. This person is now in pain and in need of healing. Loving people come to the rescue to lift this person up. Maybe even provide psychological counselling or anti-depressants. They can now happily go on their merry way in their sin with the full support of others. Actually the grief the sinning person feels from disapproval is the right feeling. He or she needs to abhor their sin, not give excuse for it. This is what David felt when he committed adultery. The pangs of conscience are good. It's like the pain someone feels when he touches a hot stove, telling him not to do that. The conscience is an internal warning device. There is a gift of pain, and wounds must be created before we can be healed (Ps 147:3; Pr 27:6; Ze 13:6).
Coming to the aid of someone who is hurting over disapproval of a righteous confrontation and rebuke just shuts down the properly working conscience. This person is learning not to listen and that is incredibly common in our day of apostasy, noted equally among Evangelicals, Reformed Calvinists, other Protestants and Baptists. He or she is not swift to hear. In other words, the person is being truly hurt, hurt in an actual way, harmed eternally, and this is not love. It is actually hatred. The people being given credit for “love” are actually hateful people. What I'm writing here is very important. This is some of the worst kind of deceit that there is in the world and it’s found everywhere in professing churches.
This also fits into parents not spanking their children. You aren’t loving them when you fail to Biblically discipline them but in fact hating them (Pr 13:24; 23:13-14; 29:15), which is along the same lines as coming to the aid of someone hurting over disapproval and rebuke of their sin or error. Children disobedient to their parents, not honouring their parents, need to feel very, very bad about that. And they should be disciplined for it.
“He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” (Pr 13:24)
“The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” (Pr 29:15)
If a young lady is dressed like a prostitute, or as the KJV says, the attire of a harlot, she should be discouraged in that. That is the strange woman in Proverbs 6-9. The fellow millennials or highly deceived middle aged and older people, who tell them that self-care is more important, and they need to feel liberation instead, are Satanic liars. God forbid, parents would encourage this. They are bringing destruction on this person and disintegrating his or her biblical discernment or wisdom. The wisdom of this world, that does not descend from above, is earthly, sensual, and devilish (Jam 3:16).
As stated, God defines love and we see that again and again in scripture. Consider these verses:
“Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." (1 Jn 5:1-3)
“If ye love me, keep my commandments. . . . He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (Jn 15:15, 21)
“If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.” (Jn 14:23-24)
"If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." (Jn 15:10)
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." (1 Jn 2:3-5)
I'm guessing that some reading here won’t like what God says about love. You won't like His definition. You would rather stick with yours. In the end though, you don't love God or others when you are sinning or erring without repentance or when you change definitions. Someone may say that you are, but don't listen to that person. He is lying to you, like Satan lied to Eve.
God is love. Whatever contradicts God's Word is not love. It will bring the worst possible circumstances to your life, even if you think that things are better for you in the short term, just like Eve did. Just because you feel something that you think is love, that isn't love.
To answer the question, if you haven’t already seen it, the most loving people are the ones who keep God's commandments. Of course, someone can't do that without faith in Christ, without being born again. Love is fruit of the Holy Spirit (Gal 5:22). It is produced by God internally in a person, but it still always looks the same. It does not accept error. It does not accept sin. Like Paul describes in 1 Cor 13, it rejoices not in iniquity but in the truth.
Someone may feed you a bromide, platitude, and epithet, that will get approval from the world, but do not believe the lies. Turn to God. Turn to His Word (which in English is the King James Bible alone, and none of the plethora of modern perversions which all hail from the corrupted Critical Text). Someone is not the most loving person in the world, who is in a state of sinning against God and not keeping what He said, nor the one that gives the wrong advice that does not come from the Word of God but from the world of humanistic philosophy.
The loving person is the person who does the will of God and tells you what you need to hear. Listen to that.
”He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” (Mk 4:9).
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