The World is Unable to Love As God Does – The Truth About Love (Part Two)

“God is Love” — Misrepresented by Many Christians

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” — 1 John 4:7–8

God loves us with a holy and everlasting love. It’s the kind of love that the world does not understand and is unable to provide — unless you’ve been born again as a child of God. The passage above is one of many that people have misinterpreted.

“Let us love another” speaks about believers loving others — “whoever loves has been born of God” — speaks about those born again in the spirit — “and knows God.”

The world does not know God so it cannot understand nor portray this kind of love.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so, we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. — 1 John 3:1

How is it that believers love differently than the world does?

This is because believers are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit teaches us to love as God loves — sacrificially, unconditionally, and eternally.

The following passage further distinguishes how differently believers love:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. — Colossians 3:12–14

As God’s chosen people, we are called to be different from nonbelievers.

Believers are increasingly embracing worldly love over God’s love.

“Worldly love is always self-focused, self-centered. People often give the reason why they love someone because of the way he or she makes them feel. This is a worldly love because it is about ‘SELF.’ A man who says he ‘loves’ his car, home, or job does so because he is usually thinking about all the benefits, he derives from them. The world always values people and things based upon their usability. Worldly love causes people to control and manipulate others, so they meet your needs. It envies what others have, is rooted in pride, and causes division and separation between people.” (Source: Worldly Love or the Love of God?)

History is full of examples of the world throwing away “useless” people. Unfortunately, we’re living in an age where even Christians have grown cold-hearted to others.

“Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe things that are wrong. There will be so much more evil in the world that the love of most believers will grow cold.” — Matthew 24:11–12

Many believers’ love is growing cold because they have adopted worldly love over God’s love. Many believers have accepted man’s gospel over the true Gospel to be more inclusive of modern cultural views and lifestyles. This has given rise to immorality and violence we now see all around us. This has given rise to the dramatic split in Christian churches today hence shattering any unity we once shared.

This shift has propelled us into the age of the Great Falling Away — or the Great Rebellion against God as evident in a society that has sought to remove God from all forms of governing and educational institutions. Instead, we’ve become lovers of men and not lovers of God. (2 Thessalonian 2:3)

Where have so many Christians gone wrong?

It’s in our misrepresentation and misunderstanding of God’s love.

God. Is. Love. But we have taken His love out of context since we’ve chosen not to include His other attributes that make up His love for us.

We’ll be looking at these in the next post.

Did you miss Part One?

Is Love the Same as Tolerance?