Love The Truth
Frankly speaking, I was hesitant in writing about love since it?s the month of February and everyone?s already talking about it. But there is something about it not everyone is so lovey dovey about ? the truth.
“They perish because they refused to LOVE THE TRUTH and so be saved.” 2 Thess. 2:10, NIV.
Written by the Apostle Paul around 50 AD on the occasion that can summed-up in 2 Thess. 2:2 (NIV), that is, the believers at Thessalonica were unsettled by idea that the ?Day of the Lord? has already come.? Paul had to remind them that the ?Day of the Lord,? otherwise known in the? Hebrew tongue as ?Yom Yahweh,? will not come until the Man of Sin is first made known (2 Thess. 2:1-12).
Sure, love in the context of this month is a many-splendored thing but emotional aspect of it aside it?s really an action word. Love is also verb and therefore must be demonstrated and expressed.? And love has already been explained many in terms of agape, philia and eros.? Then there?s a love for God, for country, for family, for brothers, for sisters, for wife, for money and even for one?s enemy.? And no matter how poetic the passage in 1 Cor. 13:4-8 is to you right now, in the heart of it is verse 6 which says,
?love does not delight in evil BUT REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH.? (NIV)
In the last days, many will perish for being duped. We?re talking of eternal consequences here. There will be delusions of Biblical proportions (2 Thes. 2:11-12). The only anchor we will have when this tsunami of fake miracles try to sweep the world is the truth of God?s Word. We need to have a firm grip of the truth now because if we can?t distinguish it from the lies even now that we’re just being seduced with unsound doctrines (2 Tim 4:3), how then will we be able to stand firm when seductive words reinforced with lying signs and wonders try to sweep us away?
Of all the commandments, the greatest is : ?Love the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and WITH ALL YOUR MIND? (Mat. 22:37 NIV). Love isn?t blind after all because when it sees the truth, it seizes it and never lets it go.
John tells us what love for God is: ?that we walk after his commandments.? What are those commandments?? ?That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it? (2 Jn. 1:6 cf?1 Jn 1:1 KJV).? You just don?t commit intellectual suicide when you truly love God instead you abide in the written Word of the living Word (Jn 8:31 cf Jn 1:1), that’s how you love God with all your mind.
Hexegetes or those who expound the Word by twisting it through ingenious means, and?then claim be on a higher spiritual plane that can’t be questioned are quick to judge those who ?contend?for the faith once entrusted for the saints? (Jude 1:3) as unloving and unspiritual. Mind you, this technique is called “wedging.” They put a wedge between reason and spirituality as if to say, ?if you want to be spiritual you just don?t think, you just follow me for I am very special.? But contrary to what they claim,? the use of a sanctified mind through sound reasoning is integral to individual faith.
- We are to love God with all our mind (Mat 22:37; Lk. 10:27).
- With demons cast out of him, the man came to his right mind (Mk. 5:15; Lk. 8:35).
- Peter was rebuked for not having in mind the things of God (Mk. 8:33).
- Mind enslaved by God?s law (Rom 7:25) is controlled by the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:6).
- Jesus did not shy away from answering question-traps (Mat. 12:10ff; Mat. 19:3ff).
- Stephen gave his life arguing in the defense of the Gospel (Acts 6:9ff).
- The Apostle Paul deliberately went to synagogues and public places to reason from the Scriptures with Jews and Gentiles alike just to share the Gospel to them (Acts 17:2; 17; 18:4, 19).
- Peter left us with a note to always be prepared to answer and give the reason for the hope that we have (1 Pet 3:15).
- Paul and Jude agreed that we contend for our faith in the Gospel (Phil 1:27; Jude 1:3).
Reasoning or the use of one’s mind is indicative of true spirituality or carnality and so this February, don’t let the Hexegetes tell you otherwise.
?For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a SOUND MIND.? 2 Tim 1:7
If you love the truth, stand up for it.
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