Love is the least understood and most hated word in the Bible in the Church today. It is at odds with the core of what most Christians believe. Understanding and embracing love will revolutionize a person’s relationship with our Messiah if it is allowed to do so. What I am about to present will be a hard teaching and likely cut deep because it deals with matters close to the heart; it did for me when God was dealing with this in my life and still does as He continues to do so.
If you’ve had any long-term exposure to DC Talk you probably know that love is a verb. The Hebrew word for love is ahav (אָהַב) meaning to ‘give’. The concrete is ‘gift’ and the abstract is ‘love’. Its feminine form is ahavah (אָהֲבָה) meaning ‘behold what is given’ or ‘receive’. Its concrete is also ‘gift’ and the abstract is ‘love’. To fully appreciate what this means you’ll want to understand the definition/ function of ‘male’ and ‘female’ (Gen 1:27) but we aren’t going to talk about that right now.
Ahav (אָהַב) pictographically means ‘provide to strengthen the family’. Ahavah (אָהֲבָה) pictographically means ‘behold what is provided to strengthen the family’. *1
The purpose of everything God, our Husband, gives us is to make us strong; not only spiritually but also physically. We, His bride, must receive it in order to be strengthened. As James says:
James 1:17
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
KJV
Everything God gives us is perfect serving to make us whole and it is eternal. Only the things that are from God are eternal and they are forever. What is this gift of love?
In order for love to be whole, complete or perfect, it needs a man and a woman. Remember when we talked about faith? The male’s responsibility is to establish a firm foundation, aman (אָמַן); the female’s responsibility is to trust in that firm foundation (אֶמוּנָה). What does it accomplish if God gives us a gift and we don’t receive it? Likewise how can we receive a gift if one hasn’t been given? The two must be one. He has only given His gift to His family (ב); that is revealed by the fundamental meaning of love. Only those in His family having a relationship with Him can receive that gift. We can’t receive the gift of salvation (be made whole) if we don’t receive the gift of grace. We can’t receive the gift of grace without the gift of the egg or faith for the Word of God to impregnate and produce life. All of these are a gift from God that must be received as part of the relationship we have with Him and they are eternal.
So what is love? What is the greatest commandment?
Deut 6:4-5 (Matt 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD is one:
5 And you will love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.
MKJV
Lev 19:18 (Matt 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27)
18 You will not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you will love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
MKJV
What is the key word in these two commandments; is it not to love? Does not Jesus Himself say that all the other commandments and the entire Word of God is based on love?
Matt 22:40
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
KJV
You cannot separate love from the commandments of God and you can’t separate the commandments from love; the two are one. If we don’t see love in a commandment, we can’t even begin to understand what a commandment means or how to rightly apply it. The commandments of God are part of what makes up the Word of God which became flesh and dwelt among us; they are alive and they are eternal. Like humans they require flesh and spirit. The letter of the Law kills but it’s the Spirit that gives life (2 Cor 3:6). Without our spirit our flesh is dead. Without our flesh our spirit cannot manifest itself. Even so the Law of God without the Spirit of God is dead and the Spirit of God without the Law of God cannot manifest itself. The two must be one. I don’t think we grasp the gravity of what it means when God took Eve out of Adam, joined them back together and made them one. All of creation works this way. The entire Word of God works this way. When we separate what God has united we advocate divorce or chaos, emptiness and darkness (1st day) but more so we are telling God that we know better than Him and this in turn separates us from God because He is light and has separated the light from the darkness.
Job said, “In my flesh I see God.” (Job 19:26) Remember flesh, b’sar (בְּשָׂר) is the same word for ‘gospel’. The Word of God is literally written in our flesh; we call it DNA. But corruption has entered into our flesh perverting the Word of God changing our DNA. Our spirit wars with our flesh, or more properly the corruption in our flesh. To be like Jesus we must remove sin/ corruption from our flesh. The only way we can do that is by obeying the commandments of God united with the Spirit of God. As God told Cain, “Sin is at your door and its desire is for you but you must rule over it.” (Gen 4:7) When we obey the commandments of God the corruption in our flesh loses. Knowing this our flesh rages against us and we must crucify it. What does that look like? What does that feel like?
It is easy not do something we haven’t done. I’d venture to say most haven’t murdered somebody so it’s no problem to obey the commandment, “You will not murder”. Scientifically geneticists have found that murders all have a certain mark on their DNA. What did God do to Cain? God marked him. While I believe this was a visible physical mark, it is apparent that it also changed his DNA. What does it also say of Cain? That he was cursed. Was it God who cursed him? What does it say?
Gen 4:11
11 And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand;
MKJV
What part of our anatomy comes from the earth? Our flesh. The result of Cain submitting himself to sin naturally resulted in his flesh becoming cursed or corrupt. Curses are not a spiritual plight; they are physical. Curses are corruption in our flesh that has manifested itself unto death. It changes our DNA to the point where our body attacks itself. A mild form of this is called sickness and the extreme form is call caner. The does not always mean, however, that sickness and cancer are always a result of sin. Pay attention to the times when Jesus heals somebody and tells them, “Go and sin no more.”
When James tells us, “Desire gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown results in death,” (James 1:15) he is not talking about a spiritual death but a physical one. It starts out spiritually as a tiny seed called temptation that, if not removed grows into lust. When lust bears fruit it manifests itself physically as an action called sin and it destroys our body resulting in physical death if not removed. Yes, sin separates us from God but that is because when we sin we remove ourselves from His presence. This is really another topic so I won’t belabor the point.
Curses of the generations are a passing down of corrupt DNA to our children. The reason it says, “To the third and fourth generation,” has to do with if it is the DNA of the father or the DNA of the mother. Three represents the fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Four represents the mothers Sarah, Rebecca, Leah and Rachel. Everything in our life directly and physically affects our children. The only way these curses can be broken is if we break them. Yes, God can miraculously heal us from these curses but He has also given us the means by which we can free ourselves through the power of His Spirit and prevent further corruption; it is called obedience and it is called love.
What about things that are a part of us, in our life, in our flesh? When those things are confronted we have an entirely different feeling from the things which are a not a part of us because they have a foothold in our flesh. Our stomach will knot up, our heart rate will elevate, our whole demeanor changes to that of offence, “How dare you sir!” That is our flesh rebelling against the Word of God. It’s the conflict of our spirit with our flesh that tends to create the greatest emotion. When we are confronted by something that does not address corruption in our flesh, our demeanor tends to be that of humble reflection. This is how you discover what is in your life that you idolize above God. If you willingly and knowingly ignore it and continue to sin, you are searing your conscious and become comfortably numb.
I heard it said by a man of God that freedom isn’t the right to choose what you want to do but the opportunity to do what God has commanded you to do. Where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom. If we do not choose to obey the commandments of God united the Spirit of God we are not free but rather we are in bondage to sin. Sin the transgression of the commandments of God.
1 John 3:4
4 Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
MKJV
Fist John is all about love, the commandments and being in right relationship with our Creator. The first thing God said when He spoke to Israel from Sinai when He entered into a marriage covenant with them is, “I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt the house of slavery.” (Ex 20:2) He commands us to believe in Him; He is the one who has delivered us from the world and set us free from the bondage of sin. He then gives us His commandments to strengthen us so we do not return; this is love. If we don’t receive them and obey them then we are no different than the Children of Israel who rebelled in the wilderness enslaving ourselves once again to sin desiring to go back to Egypt and die.
Every time God says, “I am the LORD your God,” He is bringing us into remembrance of the first commandment and speaking about something that, if we don’t sh’ma (שָׁמַע), hear and do we will again be in bondage to sin conforming ourselves to the world and our former dead self (Rom 12:2). Remember, we are not to be fashioned according to our former lusts (1 Peter 1:14-16). This is how we do it. The reason Peter tells us the first step has to do with controlling what we eat is because food has the greatest influence on our flesh. It is the third most basic things we need to live. The original sin hinged on eating something Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat. If we can’t overcome our appetite for unclean flesh, we will never be able to overcome the other things in our life that we struggle with and we will never be holy (1 Peter 1:16, Lev 11:44).
During a Bible study I was invited to, a young man, Micah, brought that grizzly bear meat moves. That grossed everybody out. He described how, under a microscope, worms, bacteria and detestable organisms were busy playing around. How would you feel if an animal you maybe eat and maybe love did the same thing? Would it gross you out? Or would your mind race to find an excuse as to why it is different even though it is the same thing? You see, grizzly meat is not a part of our diet; it has no hold in our flesh so not eating it doesn’t bother us and we can see it for what it is. Pork, on the other hand, is a daily part of the American diet. It is just as putrid as grizzly meat yet I’d venture that even mentioning this will stir a lot of people’s emotions.
This is how sin works in our life. When confronted, we search for any and every excuse as to why it is okay. It really comes down to a matter of the heart. Will we obey God and do what He says and crucify our flesh, or will we continue to feed the corruption in our flesh making it stronger and elevating it about the Word of God and God Himself? I hope you understand what I am saying. This is all about overcoming sin so we can draw closer to God and be in right relationship with Him. It is hard but what is our heart’s desire? Are our riches preventing us from giving everything up and following our Savior? Be encouraged; our Husband loves us and has given us the tools we need, His commandments to make us strong and overcome the sin that separate us from Him. All we have to do is receive them and obey them, not hate them, and they will bring life to our body and health to our soul. This is love and there is nothing greater but God Himself.
Footnotes:
*1:
Alef (א) is an ‘ox’. It can also mean ‘leader, teacher’ and ‘strength’. It can represent God (אל) pictographically meaning ‘strong leader’. This is why Israel made a golden calf at Mt. Sinai; it seemed logical though contrary to the Word of God which He spoke which they heard in Ex 20. Its English equivalent is ‘Aa’.
Beth (ב) is a ‘house’ or ‘tent’. I can also mean ‘family, in(side)’ and ‘with’. Its English equivalent is ‘Bb’ and ‘Vv’.
Hay (ה) is a man looking at a great sight. It can mean ‘behold, provide, worship, astonishment, look, sigh, reveal’ and ‘breath’. Its English equivalent is ‘Hh’.
tommarroww 