Judging on the
Basis of Love
The concept of
‘love’ is highly prominent in Family teaching: ‘Love is the most
important thing’, ‘Love never fails’, ‘God is love’, ‘The greatest of
these is love’, ‘What everybody needs is love’, and so on.
Love, indeed, is
a biblical concept: God’s love is everlasting and eternal; love is so
much an intrinsic quality of God that the apostle John says that ‘God is
love’ (1 John 4:8). It was love that motivated God to send His only Son
to die for sinful mankind. It was that same love that compelled Christ
to proceed to the cross on our behalf. It is Christ’s love that is
upheld as an example for all Christians to emulate.
Some
qualifications are necessary, however. While the Bible says that ‘God is
love’, it does not imply the reverse, that ‘Love is God.’ Such a concept
deifies the human concept of love, instead of glorifying God
Himself for who He is. God is the sovereign Lord of the universe and as
such He has many attributes: He is righteousness, He is perfection, He
is justice and He is love. The Bible calls all men to worship Him, but
it does not say that He exists as righteousness itself, or as the idea
of perfection, or justice, or love. God is a just God, it is impossible
to conceive of God ever being ‘unjust.’ Yet we are no commanded to
worship ‘justice.’ Such an idea depersonalises God to little more than
an idea, a concept, a theory, a motive. God is no ‘idea’: He is a
‘person’ in that humanity were made in His image. He is totally separate
from His creation and in fact warns mankind not to worship any facet of
His creation. Worshipping the sun or moon, for example, is idolatry.
Worshipping ‘love’ is just as idolatrous. ‘God’ and ‘love’ are not
interchangeable concepts.
For a detailed
study on ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8), click
here.
To illustrate it
differently, Jesus Christ is the prince of peace (Isaiah 9:6),
Christians are to live peacefully with all men, they are to be
peacemakers and to be at peace within themselves, but they are not to
worship ‘peace’ itself.
God is the triune
creator of all that exists; He is to be worshipped and He alone.
The next
qualification is an important one: while the Bible says that “the
greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13) and that Christians would be
known by their love for each other (John 13:35), and are in fact,
commanded to love each other (John 15:12), the Bible does not say
that such love gives Christians freedom to do whatever they wish, ‘as
long as they are acting in love.’ The Bible also sets firm boundaries
beyond which no Christian should step, regardless of how much ‘love’
they feel.
It is true that
Jesus said that the whole Law and the Prophets (i.e. the entire Old
Testament) depend on the two commandments to love God and to love one’s
neighbour.
Matt 22:37-40
37 And He said to
him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 “This is the great and
foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘you shall love your
neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole
Law and the Prophets.”
NASU
Did Jesus negate
the Old Testament when He said this? No, of course not: in fact, His
commands to ‘love God’ and ‘love your neighbour’ are actually quotations
from the Old Testament (Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18). Jesus summarised the
Old Testament, He did not replace it.
Paul declared
that “the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You
shall love your neighbour as yourself’ ” (Gal 5:14 NASU). However
neither Jesus nor Paul implied that such love could have predominance
over, for example, the commandments not to steal or murder. In fact,
Jesus reaffirmed the commandment against murder, magnifying it to a
point where it also encompasses unjustified anger (Mat 5:21-22).
For a detailed
study on Galatians 5:14, click
here. Matthew 22:37-40 is
examined
here. Other relevant
scriptures on the Law of Love (Rom 13:8, 1 Pet 4:8, Gal 6:2) are covered
here.
‘Love’ as a
Family standard of measurement
In the Family,
the teaching is that ‘God’s only law is love.’ Here is the logic behind
this statement:
- God is love.
- Therefore,
love is God.
- The Bible
says that we should worship God.
- Therefore,
we should worship ‘love.’
- Jesus said
that the Old Testament depends on two commandments to love.
- Therefore,
if we love God we are fulfilling our obligation to Him, and if we
love our neighbour, we are fulfilling our obligation to them.
- Therefore no
command exists apart from the command to love.
- Therefore,
‘God’s only law is love.’
As discussed
above, statements 2 and 4 are false and statement 5 is a misreading of
Jesus’ words. Therefore, statements 7-8 are no more than hypothetical
ideas, unsubstantiated by Scripture.
Family logic
continues, however, in an application of these ideas:
- As God’s
only law is love, ‘love’ is the only rule to obey.
- Therefore,
anything that is done in ‘love’ is lawful in the sight of God.
- Therefore,
things that were considered ‘wrong’ according to the Law of Moses
are lawful if done in ‘love.’
- Specifically
for the Family, the laws against sexual impropriety may be
sidestepped as long as the participants act in ‘love.’
There is an
important break in this logic that is never discussed in Family
literature, being the difference between God’s love and human love.
God’s love exists from everlasting to everlasting; God’s love sent
Christ to the cross to die for sinful man, and it extends mercy and
forgiveness to His unworthy creatures.
Human love
encompasses a wide range of ideas, including romantic love, patriotic
love, brotherly love, parental love, self-love and so on. However none
of these kinds of love are what Jesus was referring to when He commanded
his followers to love each other. It is simply ludicrous to claim that
Jesus meant, for example, that romantic love justifies law-breaking.
Jesus explained
that the love He was talking about was His own love:
John 15:12-13
12 This is My
commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his
friends.
(NASU)
Christians are to
take on Jesus’ love, love which is self-sacrificial to the point of
death. This kind of love can only come from God himself, and has little
to do with human love, romantic love, or sexual love.
‘Love’ and
‘Commandments’
Does God expect
us to love each other? Most assuredly He does. Does He grant us carte
blanche to do whatever we wish, as long as it is done in love? Not
at all. Does He give us freedom to knowingly do the wrong thing, as long
as we are motivated by love? No, He does not. Rather, one of the ways we
show Him our love is through our obedience to Him.
Jesus said that
the Law and the Prophets could be summarised by the commandments to love
God and to love our neighbours, but He also gave many other instructions
to his followers:
For example,
Jesus commanded His followers to have good works (Matt 5:16), to refrain
from anger and lust (Matt 5:22,28), not to divorce (Matt 5:32), not to
judge (Matt 7:1), not to deny Him (Matt 10:33), to forgive repeatedly
(Matt 18:22), to be humble (Matt 20:26), to preach the Gospel (Mark
16:15), to be giving (Luke 6:29), and so forth.
Obviously, Jesus
gave many detailed instructions to His followers; He did not think that
the two commandments to ‘love’ were sufficient. Now, each of Jesus’
commandments may be thought of as an aspect of either the commandment to
love God, or the commandment to love one’s neighbour. For example, If we
truly love God, we will not deny Christ, who is God the Son. If we truly
love our neighbours, we will forgive them. However, Jesus did not imply
that His disciples were permitted to break His commandments as long as
they were acting in love. In other words, He did not say, “Be forgiving,
unless you are motivated by love to seek revenge.” This would be
ludicrous. Likewise, He did not say, “Don’t lust after a woman, unless
you feel you really love her.”
To the contrary,
He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
It is interesting, that during the Last Supper discourse, in which Jesus
told His disciples that they were His ‘friends’ (John 15:15), He
repeatedly stressed their obligation to obey Him (John 14:15,21,23,24;
15:2,4-7,9,10,12-15,17,20). “You are my friends,” He said, “as long as
you obey me!” This would be a ridiculous statement, if it were not made
by the sovereign Lord of the universe.
The apostle John,
who was present at this discourse, later affirmed this:
1 John 5:2-3
2 By this we know
that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His
commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
NASU
Here is the
point: Jesus did not leave His followers with only two commandments, to
love God and love their neighbours. He explained that the underlying
principle of the Law of Moses was love, the purpose of everything that
the prophets said was love, His own motivation was love, His earnest
desire was for the disciples was that they love each other, and in fact
every good deed was to proceed from love, and our relationship with God
was to be built on love, but He did not leave us with the task of
deciding exactly how to apply that love. He did not say, “Just love God
and love each other! Go figure it out!” Rather, He said, “Everything is
based on love, and this is what true love looks like: it is not angry,
it is forgiving, it is humble, it is not judgemental, it does not
indulge in sexual lust, it is giving, it preaches the Gospel” and so on.
Situation
Ethics
The following is
a pertinent excerpt from the book World Views in Conflict:
While a properly
formed Christian worldview allows a great deal of leeway regarding the
positions sincere Christians may take on many of the tough problems that
rise in the formulation of an ethical theory, informed Christians will
have to reject certain views. One such view is the position called
situation ethics, which asserts that Christian ethics imposes no duty
other than the duty to love. In determining what he should do, the
situationist declares, the Christian should face the moral situation and
ask himself what the loving thing to do is in this particular case. No
rules or principles prescribe how love will act. Indeed, each loving
individual is free to act in any way he thinks is consistent with love
as he understands it. The point to situation ethics is, then, that
Christian ethics provides no universal principles and no specific rules.
Nothing is intrinsically good except love; nothing intrinsically bad
except nonlove. One can never prescribe in advance what a Christian
should or should not do. Depending on the situation, love may find it
necessary to lie, to steal, even presumably to fornicate, to blaspheme,
and to worship false gods. The only absolute is love.
A proper response to
situation ethics will begin by pointing out that love is insufficient in
itself to provide moral guidance for each and every moral action. Love
requires the further specification of principles or rules that suggest
the proper ways in which love should be manifested. Because human
beings are fallen creatures whose judgments on moral matters may be
affected by moral weakness, love needs guidance from divinely revealed
moral truth. Fortunately, Christians believe, this content is provided
in the moral principles revealed in Scripture.
In spite of all this,
life often confronts us with ambiguous moral situations in which even
the most sincere among us may agonize over what to do. At times we
simply do not know enough about ourselves, the situation, or the moral
principle that applies to be sure we are doing the right thing. As many
of us also know, weakness of will can hinder moral decision making.
In the unambiguous
situations of life, Scripture teaches, God judges us in terms of our
obedience to his revealed moral law. But how does God judge us in the
more ambiguous situations where the precise nature of our duty is
unclear? God looks upon the heart, Scripture advises. We are judged if
we break God’s commandments. This is certain. But in those cases where
we may not know which commandment applies or where we may have
incomplete knowledge of the situation, God’s judgment will take into
account not merely the rightness of the consequences of our act
(something that we ourselves are often unable to determine in ambiguous
situations) but the goodness of our intentions.
(End of excerpt)
The
Standard of Love
So, is love the
absolute standard by which we must judge all things? Actually, yes, it
is, but it is love as defined by God, not by us. God has laid down for
us in the Bible numerous things which we will do if we are truly loving,
and likewise numerous things we will abstain from.
God says:
Deut 6:5 You shall
love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all your might. NASU
But then He
explains that someone who loves God will not worship idols, will obey
Him, will believe in Jesus Christ as His Son, will preach the Gospel,
will keep himself pure and so on.
God says:
Matt 22:39 You shall
love your neighbor as yourself. NASU
But then He
explains that someone who loves his neighbour will not steal from them,
will not bear grudges, will be forgiving, will not covet their
possessions or lust after their bodies, and so on.
If we do
something in love, is it justified by God? Yes, but only if that love
conforms to God’s concept of love, only if that love does not contravene
something God forbad. God is the one who makes the rules, and decides
what is and is not love.
Conclusion
In the Family,
the biblical emphasis upon love is used to justify a number of actions
which actually contravene Scripture. This is a result of confusing God’s
definition of love with the variable, changeable opinions of man as to
the meaning of love. God commanded His followers to love, and He
explained precisely how that love would look.
In fact, one of
the ways we show our love for Him is by reading His word to learn
exactly what does or does not constitute love. When it comes to our love
for God, He retains absolute lordship over our lives:
2 John 6 And this is
love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the
commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should
walk in it. NASU
John 14:23 If anyone
loves Me, he will keep My word NASU
When it comes to
our love for each other, it is God’s own love that is upheld as the
standard to emulate:
John 15:12 This is My
commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. NASU
Matt 5:48 Therefore
you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. NASU
See also
Galatians Five
God is Love... Love is
God?
The Law of
Love in the Gospels
The Law of
love in the Epistles
References
World Views in
Conflict, Ronald H.
Nash, 1992, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, p.45.
© 2007 Make Straight Paths
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