Sacred Love Pt. 3

"and to KNOW this love that surpasses KNOWLEDGE-

that you may be filled to the measure of all the

fullness of God."

-Ephesians 3:19

Know a love that surpasses knowledge? Have any of you been puzzled by this verse? How can you know a love that surpasses knowledge? It is because the knowing that is spoken of in this verse is an experiential knowledge in contrast to the knowledge of the brain.

The key to fighting earthly love is experiencing sacred love. 

Well how do we experience sacred love?

Misconception: KNOWING the love of God is an act of the brain. False. It is an act of the heart. This knowledge is an experiential knowledge so it is meant to be lived out in the heart. When people go about living out the love of God with brains, arguments, and logic they end up relying on what knowledge the world has given them about love and then they approach God with an earthly love. This is another example of blurring the lines between earthly and sacred love. We are not meant to rely on what culture teaches us about love. We are meant to rely on the love God has for us (1 John 4:16).

Well how do we experience the love of God on our hearts?

"And hope does not disappoint us,

because God has poured out His love

into our hearts by the Holy Spirit,

whom He has given us."

-Romans 5:5

Have you ever thought of love being something almost supernatural? Thats because it is. God pours out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. 

Think about it like this: In Ephesians 3:19, we see that the love of God is so much that we can't comprehend it because it surpasses our knowledge. And we know what love is because Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16). This is the Gospel! Upon our belief of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). The Holy Sprit works on our hearts so we can experience the love of God rather than try to grasp it with our minds. This is how we know the love that surpasses knowledge.

Think about it in another way: In 1 John 3:1, it says that we know the love of God because we are called His children. Well in Romans 8:16, it says the Spirit testifies that we are God's children. Therefore, we know and experience the love of God because the Holy Spirit allows it. He allows us to comprehend the love that surpasses knowledge.

Therefore, love is the manifestation of the Spirit on the heart.

Now this whole time I've been talking about the heart, but I've been neglecting the relationship between the heart and the brain. There is a cause and effect relationship between the heart and the brain. Think about it: we like someone with our heart after our mind first decides to like that person. We use an object after our mind has first decided to buy it. The brain is the cause, the heart is the effect. God's love being poured into our hearts is a response of our mind's decision to believe in Christ. 

"The Spirit clearly says that in later times

some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving

spirits and things taught by demons."

-1 Timothy 4:1

Earthly love is a faithless love of pleasure and deceiving spirits. We are deceived and taught through our brain. Therefore, earthly love speaks to our brains while sacred love speaks to our hearts. Thats why in 2 Corinthians 4:4 it says the god of this age has blinded the MINDS of unbelievers. Now Satan is smart, even though a lot of us might think he's stupid. He uses earthly love to speak right to the cause so the effect doesn't happen.

Lets rewind back to the first post. Back to when earthly love was first introduced into the world. The moment when Eve was deceived by Satan. Her perception about the fruit was changed in that one moment and she embraced earthly love. A lot of fighting the battle between earthly and sacred love has to do with the manipulation of our perception. Let me give you an example.

"For everything God created is good,

and nothing is to be rejected 

if it is received with thanksgiving."

-1 Timothy 4:4

Everything God created is good and nothing should be rejected because since everything God created is good then it should be used to bring praise to Him. It depends on our perception.

Does anyone find it funny that Adam and Eve hid behind God's creation after they had sinned (Gen. 3:8)? The trees were created to bring praise to God, yet it was desecrated in that one moment because then Adam and Eve perceived it to be a good hiding spot. Everything God created is good and it is not to be rejected if we give praise to God through His creation. Our sinful perceptions granted to us by deceiving spirits is what keeps us from seeing God's manifestation of love through creation. It is earthly love speaking to our minds.

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,

but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . ."

-Romans 12:2

Lets renew our minds so earthly love can't speak to it anymore. Once we renew our minds, we will walk in sacred love (2 John 1:6) just as it was done in the beginning. Lets renew our love.

God's love is a sacrificial love. Therefore, God's love isn't so much of emotion but rather a love of action. He loved us so much that He GAVE His Son (John 3:16). So we are called to have a love of action.

Think about it: much about love is movement. That's why in 2 Corinthians 5:14 it says Christ's love COMPELS us. This is why we do missions, charity, evangelism, etc. etc.! Because love moves us.

This is why faith without action is dead (James 2:17): because by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit we are being conformed to share in the glory of Christ (2 Thess. 2:13-14). And we see that God's and Christ's love is action. Then through our true faith or perception of Christ in the Gospel, the Spirit would manifest itself on our hearts so we would emulate this action-love. Action is the justification of love and faith. 

There is an expectation of God on our lives. 1 John 4:16-17 says love is being made complete in us because in this world we are like Him. Love is becoming our condition because love and responding to love with action is what makes us like Him on the earth. Love is the expression of God on this earth. 

So are we going to align ourselves with culture's definition of love or God's definition of love? Only through God's definition of love are we able to experience love. It is this sacred love that allows us to experience love. It is sacred love that allows us to be conformed to His likeness. It is sacred love that was present in the beginning. So let us therefore renew ourselves back into God's definition of love and fulfill the expectation of God on our lives by living out a life of sacred love.

  "My purpose is that they may be 

encouraged in heart and united in love,

so that they may have the full riches of

complete understanding, in order that they

may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ,

in whom are hidden all the treasures of 

wisdom and knowledge."

-Colossians 2:2

Sacred Love Pt. 2

"The god of this age has blinded

the minds of unbelievers,

so that they cannot see the light

of the Gospel of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God."

-2 Corinthians 4:4

We know that the Gospel of the glory of Christ is true sacred love in its most quintessential form because it most clearly display the sacrificial love of God. This is how we know what love is!

"This is how we know what love is:

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us."

-1 John 3:16

The god of this age (Satan) has blinded the mind of unbelievers so that they cannot see this sacred love. Now we know God's love is always present and there is a time when that love will pierce through the darkness that Satan has created, but it depends on the mind of the unbeliever (which we will get into later) and if that is God's will. Wait- God's will? If God's love is always present and He loves that unbeliever wouldn't He save that person? Thing to remember: God's unconditional love is not a love that justifies the sinner, but rather a love that justifies the sin. If it was a love that justified the sinner, everyone would be saved. 

There is an obvious battle present here. The battle between earthly and sacred love. What we have to do is recognize the battle between earthly and sacred love. Why do we have to recognize the battle? Because the battle between earthly and sacred love is not just a battle between the unbeliever and the believer. It is a battle amongst believers as well.

The great evil in this battle of love in believers is when we blur the line between the two loves. This reveals itself in our lives so many times. For instance, when we say we love our girlfriend or boyfriend and devote so much of our time into him or her rather than our relationship with God. This is confusing two distinctly different things.

An almost greater evil in this battle is when we are unable to acknowledge the difference or when we are unable to admit we are wrong in this. So many of us claim to know the difference between earthly and sacred love and how we go about it. But if we love God like we say we do then that should be enough to radically and drastically change the way we live our lives. For some people, our lives wouldn't look too different if we had no sacred love at all. It would probably just mean no church on Sundays or campus ministry or etc. etc. Therefore, we see in the battle of earthly and sacred love for the believer it is mainly drawing a line between religion and relationship. Are you just doing religion? Do you have a relationship with our God? Realizing this line is key to approaching God with a sacred love. 

Another question that you should asking yourself became apparent to me when I was at Passion in January. John Piper asked everyone this question: Do you feel more love by God when He makes much of you or when He enables you to make much of Him?

We have seen that earthly love is a very self-focused love which contrasts God's sacrificial love. Therefore, do you love God because He makes much of you (earthly) or because He enables you to make much of Him (sacred)? 

There is one common misconception in unbelievers and believers (not all) that is  important to realize in recognizing the battle between earthly and sacred love. That misconception is this: God created us so that He could love us. Yes, God loves us, but that is not why He created us. God created us so that we could love Him (Isaiah 43:7).

People who approach God with an earthly self-focused love feel distant from Him when something goes wrong in their life because in that one moment, they are not being made much of. People who approach God with a sacrificial sacred love feel like God is closer to them when something goes wrong in their life because they grasp the idea that His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Their reaction is to praise God all the more through their weakness or in other words, make much of Him. 

Recognizing the battle between earthly and sacred love has so much to do with evaluating your approach to God. The beautiful difference between earthly and sacred love is that you can actually formulate your life around the love you have for God. You can't formulate your life around the love you have for a chair. You can try to, but you will fail because God's love is the only love that is unfailing (like we have seen earlier).

Are you trying to formulate your life around a love you have on this Earth? Or is your sacred love for God your anchor? Evaluate your approach to God and recognize the apparent battle between earthly and sacred love.

In Part 3, we will discuss fighting the battle between earthly and sacred love. 

Sacred Love Pt. 1

"And now these three remain:

faith, hope, and love.

But the greatest of these is love."

-1 Corinthians 13:13

I have explained why hope is important, why faith is important, but why is love important? Love is the greatest of these three. Why? Many people know love is important, but it is one of those things we just know and can't explain why. Sadly, one of the reasons we can't explain love is because there are so many definitions about it. But I am only going to discuss two definitions (or categories) of love.

Lets first take a look at Adam and Eve. They lived in perfect fellowship with God. Everything was perfect amongst God's creation. Everything Adam and Eve did was worship to God- every sight, every step, every smell was an act of worship and thanksgiving to the Lord. Then, the serpent comes along and changes Eve's perspective about the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 3:6- "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it." Eve was only able to see this after her perception was changed by the serpent. She saw it as pleasing and good when it wasn't. And as a result, the perfect fellowship with God was broken. The rest of the generations to come leading up to Jesus was characterized by renewing the gap and separation created from this one event. We see as a result of this one event, earthly love was introduced into the world. 

What is earthly love?

"People will be lovers of themselves,

lovers of money, boastful, proud,

abusive, disobedient to their parents,

ungrateful, unholy, without love,

unforgiving, slanderous, without self control,

brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous,

rash, conceited,

lovers of pleasure

rather than

lovers of God."

-2 Timothy 3:2-4

Earthly love is a love of pleasure. It is a deception guiding us away from the true love. We see that Eve was a victim of this earthly love when she was deceived to think the fruit was pleasing and good. It is a love of pleasure.

How does culture display earthly love? Think about it. There are many instances. For example, listen to mainstream music now a days. What's the message? Get rich quickly or maybe its the boasts of one person because he or she is rich and successful or maybe its for the love of another person. Advertisements appeal to emotion saying that we could do it or we have control of our own lives or we can be a certain image. These are deceptions guiding us away from the true love. These are loves of pleasure. 

Culture has transformed the meaning of love and therefore, love has lost its potency or its significance.

Think about it, we say we love everything! We say we love a chair or some food and then with the same tongue we say we love the Lord. Surely, we don't love a chair the same way we love the Lord, but because culture has merge the meaning of love, there is no way to distinguish this with our words. In the Old Testament Song of Solomon, there were three Hebrew words to discuss the word love expressed in that book. There was: raya, ahava, and dod. And then in the New Testament, there is the Greek word agape which is used to describe the love of Christ in comparison to the other Greek words for love in the New Testament philia and storge (the word eros is not used in the New Testament). Think about how we only have one way to say love. There is not another word in our culture to express the love of God in comparison to the love of a chair. Our culture has merged these different loves into one. 

Love might have lost its potency by earthly standards but not by Heavenly standards. We know there is something other than what culture has to say about love. We know there is something other than earthly love.

There is sacred love.

Now I use the term 'sacred' love because sacred in Merriam-Webster's dictionary means 'dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity.' And thats exactly what our love for God is! It is set apart from earthly love meant to worship Him!
Now if sacred love models what Adam and Eve had in creation before the fall and they were created in the Father's likeness, then sacred love is meant to emulate the love that our Father has for us. And since this is so, I am going to define sacred love by describing what earthly love is not or the attributes of God's love.
It is important to understand certain attributes of God's love. Now there are many attributes but I will only discuss three.
God's love is unconditional. We do not have to meet any condition to receive His love in contrast to the performance-based earthly love. Now this unconditional love is not a love that saves or justifies the sinner. If it was a love that saved or justified the sinner, then everyone would be saved since God loves everyone. Unconditional love is a love that loves us before we meet the condition of sin. Now there is a difference between status and condition. A sinner's status is sin if they are not justified by faith. A believer's status is righteousness because it was imputed on us through the death of Jesus Christ. But there is still the condition of sin on believers. But praise God that in 1 Peter 4:8 it says, "love covers over a multitude of sins!" Now God loves everybody (don't get me wrong), but by saying He has an unconditional love means that He loves us despite the condition. I'm not saying He doesn't love the sinner whose status is sin. But by saying God unconditionally loves the sinner, it is like saying God loves the sinner because he or she sins. God unconditionally loves the righteous because though they have the condition of sin, they were chosen, appointed, elected, or called to eternal life (Ephesians 1:4-5, Acts 13:48). Our faith is a result of the election and when we choose to believe, our condition of sin becomes replaced by love because love covers over a multitude of sin! Thats why in 2 Peter 1:5 it says: ". . . add to your faith goodness: and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, LOVE." He loves us unconditionally because through His unconditional love, our condition becomes love. 
God's love is constant and unfailing. This is IMPORTANT and to stress the importance I will give Scripture: Exodus 15:13, Psalm 6:4, Ps. 13:5, Ps. 18:50, Ps. 21:7, Ps. 26:3, Ps. 31:16, Ps. 32:10, Ps. 33:5, Ps. 33:18, Ps. 33:22, Ps. 36:7, Ps. 44:26, Ps. 48:9, Ps. 51:1, Ps. 52:8, Ps. 62:12, Ps. 85:7, Ps. 90:14, Ps. 94:18, Ps. 107:8, Ps. 107:15, Ps. 107:21, Ps. 107:31, Ps. 109:26, Ps. 119:41, Ps. 119:76, Ps. 119:88, Ps. 130:7, Ps. 138:2, Ps. 143:8, Ps. 143:12, Ps. 147:11, Isaiah 54:10, Lam. 3:32, Hosea 10:12. Why is this important? I've heard so many people say that they feel so distant from God and they can't see Him. They approach God like His love is not constant, which is uncharacteristic of His love. His love is constant! Some people might rely on the earthly definition of love to describe God's love, and they treat His love like it is something of this earth. Earthly love dies, not God's love. This is important to understand because this is a fundamental difference between earthly and sacred love.
God's love is sacrificial. John 3:16, 15:13, and 1 John 4:16 clearly explains that God sacrificed Himself because He loves us so much. God broke perfect fellowship with Himself by giving us His Son to die for us on the cross. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus says: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God had to deny this perfect fellowship for us. God had to turn away from Himself for us. God had to sacrifice because He has a sacrificial love. 
This is everything earthly love is not. This is sacred love.
I have drawn the lines between earthly and sacred love. In Part 2, I will discuss recognizing the battle between earthly and sacred love.