“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” -Matthew 22:37-39
Love is not ours but Gods. God is love, and we love him because he first loved us. Because this is true, love can never be synonymous with tolerance. Love must be attributed back to God himself and then consequently given to the creation he first loved. It is no charge of the Christian to hate, and no more so to accept that which God hates.
When the Pharisees asked Jesus what is the greatest commandment. His reply was “Love the Lord your God, and the second like unto it love your neighbor as yourself.” I have heard it said on many occasions; the first part of this statement summed up the first four commandments, and the second summed up the last six. Loving God will cause obedience to the first four commandments, and in doing so cause you to love your neighbor which covers the other six. This is why Paul writes that all the law is fulfilled in one word: Love. When you love God, you love what God loves, want what God wants, and you in turn hate what God hates. God is love, so when you love God and you are filled with the love of God (the Holy Ghost) you are brought into conformity with Him. Furthermore, you are divorced from everything that is against him. Idolatry, blasphemy, stealing, murder, adultery, fornication; these are things that God hates, because he loves and is love. They are against Him, and in truth against us as well. When we sin, people suffer. Babies suffer when they are aborted, children suffer when parents’ divorce, people hurt when there is murder, and hardship abounds when we: lie, cheat, and steal. It is the commission of the Christian to show the love of God and shun the path of sin; in doing so, we will garner the persecution of the world. Why? Because the world is of their father the devil. Virtually every major ideology that is militantly propagated by the world is against God. Among which include homosexuality, transgender, gender equality, abortion, evolution, capitalist greed, humanism, and many others. They seek to overthrow Almighty God, even though many who carry these beliefs may not see it that way. However, because the devil has blinded the minds of them that believe not, they that are of the world want to challenge God’s authority as the Creator/Almighty. Furthermore, the devil seeks to undermine His hierarchy in the home, in the church, in all places. The ultimate goal is for us to embrace and worship the creature more than the Creator. The Pharisees design was to undermine Jesus and try to catch him in his words. The devils design is the same, he wants to undermine God and try to gain an advantage by destroying His authority. Satan knows that God is Lord, but if he can convince us that we are lord and we are gods in and of ourselves then we will know no Savior, and in truth we will live without the love of God and the favor of God. The battle is bigger than politics, land, and country; it is spiritual warfare we are fighting. In an effort to win souls away for a sinner’s hell.
Love for God, and love for our neighbor will cut through all of this and center us on good things. We don’t have to have all the answers to all the questions, but we must trust in the Lord and believe His word. The answer to the world today is the same answer it was to the world then. Love God and love your neighbor. This is the whole duty of man.
