If love for each other were the dominating emotional desire in the world, we would be one big happy family. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? But as we all know, that will never be the case. The reason is because we have a free will that is concerned mostly with self-interest and self-preservation.
What if a few of us wanted to start a group of people who would love and care for each other as much as they cared for themselves, and not be concerned with how they would make out because someone else would be caring for their welfare? That sounds too good to be true.
Genuine love is a powerful force. The closest we come to displaying that powerful love is the love a mother and father have for their children. The only thing is that the children may not have the same love for their parents. What if the parents tested their children to see which ones could return close to the same love they received from their parents? Then the rest of the children would somehow be separated. This is a hypothetical situation illustrating what will happen when our Heavenly Father will separate the sheep from the goats, or His loving children from those who love and care for themselves more than others.
Even though it is not mentioned in scripture, it is logical to presume that all who will be qualified for heaven will still have their free will for all eternity. That is the test we are now going through here on earth. Doesn’t that sound fair? It is a tough test, but nevertheless, it is the only way it can be done. To have one self-centered person in heaven would disrupt the whole love process.
With that said, genuine Christianity is simple enough for a child to understand. And still we have hundreds if not thousands of so-called Christian religions, all claiming theirs is the right one.
There is one catch: in order to love as aforementioned, Christians initially have to be filled with Divine love before they can love each other without concern for self. That is where things get mixed up.
It all has to do with the belief process. First, we must believe all that Jesus Christ did for us by His life and death. That makes Him our Savior and Lord. It is easy enough to accept Him as our Savior, but His Lordship is where many of us get derailed. Being our Lord (boss) means that we must do exactly what He commands. And when we don’t obey His teaching, our relationship could get severed if we continue to disobey.
But when we do what Jesus teaches, then what kicks in is the incredible love that God the Father has for us. God’s love for us makes us SUPERHUMANS. How so? We must not just say that God loves us, but actually feeds on that love, thus making us feel indispensable. That love cannot be described in human words. The best way I can describe it is to believe that each individual Christian has his or her own God to personally love and care for her or him.
And believe it or not, every genuine Christian has his own powerful, personal God to give him/her all the love that is needed to put others ahead of him or herself. That powerhouse is God in the person of the Holy Spirit. Now to make that all-powerful love work as needed, the beholder must be aware of the Spirit’s existence at all times, to the point that He is the person that is doing all the loving of others. That almost sounds unbelievable. Again, it is the Holy Spirit living in us who is using our bodies, our faith and devotion to do His loving work. Isn’t that wonderful? That is how we, empowered by our personal God, will have the ability and desire to love others as God loves them. Of course, in order for our Holy Spirit to love as above-mentioned, we must relinquish our personal desires of self-interest concerning that area of our lives.
When we look at Christianity as a whole, we can quickly tell that not many of us who claim to be Christians have that type of selfless love. That is the love that is needed, which is inspired by faith that will qualify us to be recipients of heaven.
All this does not happen automatically--only with a great deal of faith/belief and effort. Again, the love of God that is living and active is the powerhouse in every genuine Christian. Without God’s love doing His work, we are as powerless as a corpse, even though we still may call ourselves Christians.
Now here is the amazing part: God commands that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. That is a difficult, but not impossible command to constantly obey. Now if He wants us to love Him to that degree, don’t you think that He, through His Holy Spirit, loves us to that same degree? Certainly!
The self-honesty we must have is in recognizing when He is inspiring us and when we are listening to our own thoughts. The vast majority of the time, His inspirations may not be in conformity with our worldly desires (that is, if He actually is indwelling our physical bodies.)
He will guide us in many ways and teach how we must live in order to attract others to His work. To validate how the Holy Spirit will work through us, let me bring up a few verses from the New Testament.
Luke 12: 12. “. . . for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
1st John 2:27. “. . . and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things . . .”
John 16:13. “. . . but when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
John 14:25. “. . . but the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”
1st Thessalonians 4:9. “. . . for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.”
1st Corinthians 2:13. “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit.”
I don’t believe we will hear audible words, but as in my case, thoughts will come into my mind that quite often are not my own. Sometimes the messages will elaborate on already-known truths, and other times they will be something totally new that is not in conflict with New Testament teaching and makes a whole lot of sense.
The one thing we can’t emphasize enough is that we must continually feed on God’s love for us (our existence) and our love for others: that is the foundation for the complete Christian religion. If we are not living off of His love, something drastic has to change because we can’t live as commanded on our own love for self, and without the Holy Spirit actively directing our lives.
If nothing else, get this: The dynamic power of active belief in God’s love for us can satisfy every spiritual (holy) emotion that humans can experience. Repeating, we must experience the force of that love that God has for us to be able to love others as required. Belief and faith that we are Christians, etc. is not the type needed to activate God’s love: we must consciously and continually activate God’s love with our Spirit-guided mind. This will not be easy since many “Christians” have their minds mainly on important worldly matters.
Why would God command us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves, if he didn’t mean it? I’ve heard it said, most often by the clergy, that for humans it would be impossible to love to that degree. I say, “God’s standards are high.” To void that command to love would make--and has made--Christianity a laughingstock to many people. Remember that God is not saying to love with puny human love. It would be utterly impossible to live and love with human love no matter how powerful it may seem. That type of love could never get anyone off the ground.
When we start to experience heavenly love, we enter into another realm of living that is unknown to all who live by the standards of love that this world sets. The best part of this Godly love is that there is no glass ceiling as to how high we can rise since God is that glass ceiling.
As I am compelled to write this, I can see that I myself am challenged and inspired to rise higher than where I now am. I believe we will all have a steep road to climb. Please dismiss the thought that divine love is not attainable in this world. Jesus Christ had it and by faith made it available to anyone who desires to be the BEST CHRISTIAN POSSIBLE.
Of course, with the type of “Christianity” we have now accepted in America and possibly the world, God’s high standard will never fly. I can say this: what is more joyful and gratifying than loving as a clone-of-Christ-in-the-making? Regardless of how high one’s stature is in this world, it will never reach the grandeur of loving and living according to God’s standards, regardless of how much the religious hierarchy rants and raves incoherently.
In conclusion, embracing divine love, which is exclusive to genuine Christianity, is the answer to all the wows we have heaped onto ourselves. Not to be pessimistic, but that Godly love will never materialize to any great degree on this planet. Does that mean that I and those who believe the same are just beating their heads against the wall? Never! Remember: many are called, but few are chosen.
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