The Greatest is "Unconditional" Love

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul talks in detail about how unconditional Godly love is and how we ought to love with the same love.  In 1 Corinthians 13:13, Paul says that we are to abide in “faith, hope, love, these three,” but the greatest is unconditional love.

Wait, that might not be what he said.  No, that isn’t what Paul taught, but that seems to be how many people today read the passage.  Love is defined (even by those claiming to be religious) as unconditional, non-judgmental, and without stipulation or consequence.  By this definition, we cannot convince or rebuke (2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:15) because we would be judging another person to have sinned, and those that advocate this definition of “love” are adamant about not judging (a very misapplied Matthew 7:1).  If we truly love someone, then we accept them the way that they are!

Let us examine some of these concepts and see if the previously defined version of “love” is the Biblical definition of “love.”  In 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, Paul says that even if he does great deeds (speaking in tongues, prophesying, great understanding of mysteries, feeding the poor, and even being burned) but doesn’t have love, it profits him nothing.  Paul then defines the characteristics of love for us: it is longsuffering and kind, it does not envy, it does not parade itself, it is not puffed up, it does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil, it does not rejoice in iniquity, but it does rejoice in truth, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and it never fails.  How many of these characteristics fit into the definition of love found above? Many people that advocate this definition will say to someone they perceive to be judging them, “You need to love more!” What does this typically mean? The insinuation is that they have perfected love and that you need to love as they love.  Question: is this not “puffed up” and parading? Does a refusal to accept chastening fit with rejoicing in truth, or does it fit more with rejoicing in iniquity?

What about other passages that help us define love? Hebrews 12:5-8 tells us that those whom the Lord loves He chastens (in other words, He judges their activities/lifestyle/choices to be a transgression).  Do we dare tell the Lord that He doesn’t know how to love because He has chastened us?

How is love defined in 1 John? With the flighty, wishy-washy definition that we utilized at the beginning of this study, or is it defined as something of substance, something worth having? In 1 John 4, he writes that we are to love one another because love is of God (4:7-8).  How was God’s love for us made manifest? Through the sacrifice of His Son for our sins (4:9-10).  This is God’s definition of love! How are we to love one another? In the same manner that He loved us (4:11)!

There are many other passages, even in 1 John, that we could look at to further substantiate the true definition of love, but we will consider only a few more.  In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another (which is the commandment spoken about in 1 John 1:7-8).  Did Christ come to the world to tell us that we are all fine in our current spiritual state? Did He come and die so that sin wouldn’t be judged as sin? No, Christ loved us and came to earth and died for our sins that we can have hope in eternal life.  There is substance to this love, not simply a phrase.  True love is all the things found in 1 Corinthians, plus the willingness to tell someone something they don’t want to hear in order that they can be saved.  If you are unwilling convince, rebuke, and exhort for the saving of their souls, then YOU DO NOT LOVE THEM.

In John 14:15, Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep my commandments.”  What can we inescapably conclude from this passage? If we do not keep His commandments, then we do not love Him! We cannot claim to love God, but keep the ways of the world.  We cannot claim to love God, but walk in darkness (reference 1 John 1; Galatians 5:16-26; and Ephesians 5:1-21)!

Love God, obey His commandments!

Noah and the Ark

Genesis 6 (almost)
 

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.  I will ask man his opinion before making this decision though.”  There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.  Those were the might men who were of old, men of renown. 

Then the Lord saw that man did some things that could be considered wicked, but God didn’t want to judge their deeds.  And the Lord was sort of sorry that He had set in motion the events that evolved into the race of mankind. 

So the Lord said, “The earth may be destroyed by a flood that I cannot control, so I had better warn someone so that all things that evolved on the earth won’t perish.”  The Lord looked and saw that Noah was a self-defined moral man and that pleased the Lord.

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh may come about soon due to a flood.  This isn’t because of wickedness, for I don’t judge the deeds of men.  You maybe ought to build a ark out of gopherwood with some rooms inside of it.  Its length ought to be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.  You should also make a window for the ark and it should be a cubit from above and there should be a door in the side of the ark.  You should make it with lower, second, and third decks. 

And so Noah, thinking that God might be right about a flood, decided to grace God by obeying His will.  And so Noah began to build the ark after a period of two or three years.  He went out and began to cut down large maple trees and pine trees, all of which he thought would be good for floatation.  Then Noah’s sons came and said, “Father, God said to use gopherwood, but you are using maple and pine!”  And Noah replied, “Sons, judge not that ye be not judged.  I believe that these woods are better than what God told me to use.  Besides, my personal walk with God is none of your business! You cannot judge me as not obeying the will of God!”  And so Noah’s sons were silenced and they realized how much wiser Noah was than God.

And so, Noah and his family were saved when the flood came about that God was lucky enough to guess was coming.  And God rejoiced that Noah had used his own knowledge of wood and that he had used more buoyant wood than gopherwood, because gopherwood would have sunk.   

 

Is this what Genesis 6 actually says? Absolutely not! Genesis 6:22 - "Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did."  God did not ask approval from mankind before destroying the world - God saw the wickedness of mankind.  Noah did not alter the plans for the ark!

We Can Do It Better Than God

We are surrounded by many today that have “good intentions” in their service to the Lord.  They seek out more “efficient” methods of completing the commands of God, but in doing so they neglect to also seek out the Bible authority for their methods.  Mankind, it seems, is stuck on the concept that they know how to accomplish the will of the Lord (evangelizing, benevolence, etc) better than the Lord.  To further clarify, man seems to think that their own methods are much more efficient than the methods set forth in the New Testament by the Lord.  Why didn’t God just ask us how to get things done correctly?

 

It is out of this false sense of self-importance that concepts such as institutionalism spring forth (there are many other false doctrines that can be utilized to express this point as well).  God’s method of benevolence just simply isn’t efficient enough, so let’s create an organization between the church and its members to take care of ALL the needy.  God’s method of evangelizing the world isn’t efficient enough either, so let’s create an institution or organization to take care of that as well.  God’s method of the older teaching the younger isn’t efficient either, so we’ll go ahead and create some manmade method of accomplishing this as well.  As you can see, God really should have asked us before commanding how these things ought to be done because we know better than God.  But, since we have good intentions and the ends justify the means, God will accept it in the end (and perhaps praise us for knowing more than He does about how the world works and how people will respond).

What about King David and Uzzah? In 2 Samuel 6, David decides that the Ark of the Covenant will be transported from Baale Judah on a cart rather than carried by the polls that were designed for this purpose (2 Samuel 6:1-5; Exodus 25:10-15).  Well, this makes sense, doesn’t it? Isn’t it a more “efficient” method of transporting the Ark? The Levites HAD to get tired from carrying around the Ark by those polls, so why wouldn’t a cart be a more efficient method of completing the command of the Lord?

…then the oxen stumbled (2 Samuel 6:6).  Uzzah, with his good intentions (and there is no reason to doubt that Uzzah had good intentions), reaches out to steady the Ark so that it doesn’t fall off of the cart.  God, who by this point realized that using a cart IS a more efficient method of doing His will, accepts Uzzah’s decision to touch the Ark because of his good intentions.

Obviously not! In 2 Samuel 6:7, the Lord becomes angry with Uzzah for touching the Ark and strikes him down. 

Rather than telling God that we know better than He does how to accomplish His will, we should actually DO His will! When you hear, "I don't need to show my authority for doing x, y, and z because they are 'good works,'" beware. If someone is being honest, they will be fine with being asked for their Bible authority for an action...and will even expect it and be happy that people are asking! (1 John 4:1-3) If someone is "offended" because you ask to see the Bible authority for what they are doing, then something is wrong! If they are trying to hide what they actually believe behind tricky words and avoidance of the subject, then there is something wrong (Romans 1:15-17; Colossians 3:17; 2 John 7-11).