Do you love Christ, as He loves you?

[Born_Again]

I urge you to watch this clip from the movie Fireproof and ask yourself the question... Do you love Christ as He loves you? I look forward to your responses.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZstGLx5oH30

 

[truthquest]

Jesus has perfect love and I know I don't have that kind of love, ...yet. He said the two greatest commandments was love for God and love for neighbor. If we don't love others who we have seen then how can we love God who we haven't seen. We have to love others first before we can love God, not the other way around. We can't focus on the faults and sins of others and truly love them. If Jesus only focused on our faults and sins then who could stand. Love covers a multitude of sins. If we can learn to love others this way then we are closer to loving Jesus the way he loves us.

 

[Born_Again]

I think this verse is by far one of the best to describe how important it is to love. We can have all the faith in the world, but if we don't have love in everything we do, it means nothing. A few people who post on here seem to be a scholar and claim to know the Lord better than everyone, but they may have skipped this particular verse.



1 Corinthians 13 New International Version (NIV)
13 If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

[Webers_Home]

-
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is widely thought to be one of
Christ's commandments; but it isn't. He got it from the covenant that Yhvh's
people agreed upon with God as per Lev 19:18 and Lev 19:34.

Christ's commandment goes beyond the covenant that Yhvh's people agreed
upon with God. He says: "As I have loved you, so you must love one
another." (John 13:34 and John 15:12)

Bottom line is: the covenant demands humane love, while Christ demands
divine love; which is a much harder love to produce than humane love
because only people blessed with a divinity's nature can produce divine love.
Good luck with that.

=================================

 

[brakelite]

Peter says we may, through God's promises, (in other words through faith in God's word), be partakers of the divine nature. (2 Peter 1:3,4) Therefore by the grace of God fully able to love as Christ loves. In fact, Paul admonishes us to do just that for our wives. (Eph. 5:25) Love was/is the motivation for everything God is doing in our lives. Christ demonstrated the depth of that love at Calvary. It is fully expressed in self sacrifce. This is why Paul said 'let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus'. (Phil. 2:5).
And John said 'Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay our lives down for the brethren.' 1 John 3:16.
I recommend a thorough reading of Johns first letter and seek to understand the relationship between love and the keeping of God's commandments.

 

[heretoeternity]

Jesus said in John 14.15 "if you love me keep my commandments"..He obviously referring to the ten commandments..God's law.


Remember salvation is through the Son of God, His grace and commandments, and not the sun god/satan and his days of sunday,dec 25th and easter, all of which are non Biblical and pagan in origin.

 

[lforrest]

Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Light compared to what?

I'll tell you what, he is comparing this to the Law! There is no obligation for the Christian to follow the letter of the written law of Moses, but the spirit of the Law. The spirit of the law is Love for God and one-another.

 

[heretoeternity]

You are confusing the law of Moses, the 613 sacfricial, feast, festival, cleanliness, etc laws, which were written by Moses and give to the people...Acts 15 indicates it is mostly gone with the exception of 4 points...
God's law is the Ten commandments which God wrote himself on stone to indicate permanency..this is what Jesus was referring to in John 14.15 "if you love me keep my Commandments"....very plain and simple to understand don't you think?

And remember salvation is through the Son of God, His grace and commandments,and not the sungod/satan and his days of sunday,dec 25th and easter..all of which are non Biblical and of pagan origin.

 

[williemac]

You are confusing the law of Moses, the 613 sacfricial, feast, festival, cleanliness, etc laws, which were written by Moses and give to the people...Acts 15 indicates it is mostly gone with the exception of 4 points...
God's law is the Ten commandments which God wrote himself on stone to indicate permanency..this is what Jesus was referring to in John 14.15 "if you love me keep my Commandments"....very plain and simple to understand don't you think?

And remember salvation is through the Son of God, His grace and commandments,and not the sungod/satan and his days of sunday,dec 25th and easter..all of which are non Biblical and of pagan origin.

I think you should take another look at Paul's letters. When he spoke of grace vs. law, he made it clear he was speaking of moral law. The ten commandments are the moral law. Jesus, on the other hand, gave new commandments. He did not say keep Moses' commandments, He said keep MY commandments. You are simply making an assumption that disagrees with the new covenant. As well, this thread is about loving Jesus. No problem. But nowhere did Jesus put a condition of salvation to this commandment. He simply said "do it". He did not say "Do it or else you cant be saved". It is the mistake of many in the church and some on this website to attach salvation to the commandment to love God. In fact, Paul rebuked and corrected the Galatian church for making justification about faith and law together. Its not grace "and" commandments. It is grace through faith. As well, His commmandment to us is repeated by John in 1John 3:23, which are to believe on Him and love one another.

Herin lies the problem with attaching the command to love one another to salvation: At what point or level of love would we be qualified for life? Is it perfection? Is it a good try? Where is the standard? The law gave a standard, and that was 100% full satisfaction of it and anything short of this results in disqualification. Paul remarked that if one wants to go back to the standard of law for justification then he becomes obligated to keep the whole law. This isn't about a good effort. This is about being able to be called righteous by way of the full 24/7 examination of an entire lifetime.

In terms of our justification and righteous statis, it comes as a result of the obedience and righteousness of One Man. This is found in no uncertain terms in Rom.5. We are not being told to take salvation into our own hands. We are given the good news that our salvation was earned for us on our behalf by Jesus, by His life and His death. Hence Rom.10:9,10 follows after the foundation laid by Paul in the preceeding chapters.

If we allow contradiction to this to creep into our understanding we will shipwreck our faith, adding leaven to grace, and placing a burden on our backs that we could not endure before grace and certainly won't endure it afterward. Saved by grace. Kept by grace. Love is a fruit. It comes after having recieved life. And some will bear fruit 100%, some 60%, some 30%. Rewards will be handed out and loss will be suffered on the judgment seat of Christ. But the person at that seat will be saved, even if so as through fire. You would be well advised not to mess with these truths.

 

[Zog Has-fallen]

Do you love Christ as He loves you?

I don't believe it's possible for anyone to love Christ as He loves us. But it's what Christ commands nevertheless.

 

[Born_Again]

I don't believe it's possible for anyone to love Christ as He loves us. But it's what Christ commands nevertheless.

Very true!!!

 

[brakelite]

I think you should take another look at Paul's letters. When he spoke of grace vs. law, he made it clear he was speaking of moral law. The ten commandments are the moral law. Jesus, on the other hand, gave new commandments. He did not say keep Moses' commandments, He said keep MY commandments. You are simply making an assumption that disagrees with the new covenant. As well, this thread is about loving Jesus. No problem. But nowhere did Jesus put a condition of salvation to this commandment. He simply said "do it". He did not say "Do it or else you cant be saved". It is the mistake of many in the church and some on this website to attach salvation to the commandment to love God. In fact, Paul rebuked and corrected the Galatian church for making justification about faith and law together. Its not grace "and" commandments. It is grace through faith. As well, His commmandment to us is repeated by John in 1John 3:23, which are to believe on Him and love one another.

Herin lies the problem with attaching the command to love one another to salvation: At what point or level of love would we be qualified for life? Is it perfection? Is it a good try? Where is the standard? The law gave a standard, and that was 100% full satisfaction of it and anything short of this results in disqualification. Paul remarked that if one wants to go back to the standard of law for justification then he becomes obligated to keep the whole law. This isn't about a good effort. This is about being able to be called righteous by way of the full 24/7 examination of an entire lifetime.

In terms of our justification and righteous statis, it comes as a result of the obedience and righteousness of One Man. This is found in no uncertain terms in Rom.5. We are not being told to take salvation into our own hands. We are given the good news that our salvation was earned for us on our behalf by Jesus, by His life and His death. Hence Rom.10:9,10 follows after the foundation laid by Paul in the preceeding chapters.

If we allow contradiction to this to creep into our understanding we will shipwreck our faith, adding leaven to grace, and placing a burden on our backs that we could not endure before grace and certainly won't endure it afterward. Saved by grace. Kept by grace. Love is a fruit. It comes after having recieved life. And some will bear fruit 100%, some 60%, some 30%. Rewards will be handed out and loss will be suffered on the judgment seat of Christ. But the person at that seat will be saved, even if so as through fire. You would be well advised not to mess with these truths.

Hi Williemac, I agree with you...our salvation is solely based on grace through faith. Our obedience can never have any effect on God's grace and mercy. The Lamb was offered in our stead; only our acceptance or non acceptance of the Lamb can affect our eternal destiny. That said however, once accepted, can our continuing disobedience impact the salvation God provided in Christ? Or to put it another way, is our continuing disobedience to God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, be an indication of whether we have actually received Christ...or not? Of course, there are nuances to disobedience. On one extreme one has the flagrant in-your-face stubborn refusal to comply with any of the commandments (even professing Christians advocate this in their fear of legalism and concern they may be relying on obedience for their justification) and on the other extreme the lagalist demands of the ultra conservative that any disobedience or non-compliance to any or all of the commandments directly results in loss of salvation.
I believe there is a middle ground to be found in between these two extremes. It is for each one of us, in the context of our relationship with Jesus and our growth, the light we have received, and our maturity, to find our place within those extremes.
I think we would do well to remember however two things.One, Adam and Eve lost their lives, their hopes, their future because of disobedience...despite the fact that Christ had already given His promise of salvation. Their salvation was contingent upon their acceptance of Christ. On their acceptance of His promise. And two, commandments are commandments. They are not suggestions. God does not ask anything of us that we are not able to give...and what we lack He is willing and able to provide. Including the willingness to obey Him in all things.