The Love for God

Paul J. Bucknell

Background | What do you say? | Love for God | Running on Empty | An Open Mind?

The liberal is convinced that they have reduced the Bible’s important gospel message down to the need to love one another. They have, of course, stripped the primary command to love God from Jesus’ mouth. That is, from their perspective, the supernatural part that has to be stripped off the primal message if it is going to bring any help.

And he (Jesus) answered and said, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” (Luke 10:27).

They like to summarize it simply as ‘love your neighbor,’ which is far different from what Jesus actually said, “Love ... your neighbor as yourself.” But again, I am not suggesting bringing up this verse to get into this discussion. I mention it because they are confident they have found this catchphrase as the key to life. They really do believe that it is true. It is from here that they think they ooze confidence in their new religion.

We should not be scared of their viewpoints. Because they have dropped the first portion about loving God, it shows that their own perspective cannot be properly defended. Although they speak strongly of love and a God of love, their concepts are easily shown to be superficial. They have basically redefined whatever they believe about God to match their concepts of love. We will find that their greatest weakness is what they consider their greatest strength.

Humanists have great confidence in their judgments. They are not scared at the fact that they have reshaped God. They think they have helped everyone by doing this. It is popular to believe that our concepts of God are evolving along with the human race, and they happily join in that process. It is unclear what they really believe about God. It seems to be, in most cases, a mysterious power that rarely, if ever, gets involved in our lives. But again, it seems best not to focus on who God is. Instead, focus on their key teaching of loving one another. It is easier to break through with concrete life examples than vague concepts of who God may or may not be.

1 John speaks very clearly that the one who does not have the Father does not have the Son (Jesus). The one who does not have Jesus does not have love. They have, of course, stripped Jesus of His miraculous birth, life, and resurrection. In their eyes, He was merely a good teacher who spoke of the need to love one another. In this sense, Jesus does not seem any more special than other teachers.

In order to break into their lives and to give them a glance at how wrong their concepts are and how good God’s ways are, we need to create a conversation where life meets life. They need to see our love for them. Only by God orchestrating special events will they be able to see God’s love through our lives. They might even begin to consider that God might be real and personal, different from how they once perceived. Liberals have been hit hard by hard-speaking conservatives. We need to love them and put our faith to action. Try inviting them for supper! Apologetics that builds up sides only produces a cloud of bitterness.

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