“Love is love” is a pop-culture phrase. Most of the time when ppl say this, they’re referring to sexual attributes and other factors that lacks the characteristics of God/Jesus Christ. But I wanted to search a little deeper on the meaning—specifically in Greek/Hebrew

“You adulteresses [disloyal sinners—flirting with the world and breaking your vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend [that is, loving the things of the world] is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” —James 4:4 (Amp)

I took some time, not long ago, to ask God to help me to love the way He wants me to love bc I didn’t feel as if I actually “love” His way.

Too often we use the world’s definition, which isn’t real simply bc—the world doesn’t govern itself by God’s standards. They don’t always agree with showing love to or prayi g for strangers/enemies. Therefore it lacks authenticity, purity, righteousness, endurance, humility, security, prayer, trust, faith, honesty,TRUTH…

So we have a world full of lovers of self, pleasure of unrighteousness, perversion, boasters—their “love” rejoices in evil, it’s full of pride & distrust; insecurity and oppression

1 John 2:15-17 (NIV)
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

May we take a moment to reflect on how we “love”. How we use this word and how we express it. LOVE ISNT boasting about unrighteous behavior; it’s not proud nor self-exalting…

² “I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. ³ You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.⁴ “But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first!^[b] 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. ⁶ But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.⁷ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God. -Revelation 2:2-7 (NLT)

Within the church culture, we often hear this passage interpreted as “return back to your first love; do your first work back over”. Here’s the revelation the Lord gave to me from this particular scripture and quote:

Imagine being in a relationship (marriage) for several years – life happens and now the two of you are drifting from each other. The communication has grown poor, there’s a lack of intimacy and now you’ve allowed yourself to become open & exposed to more “exciting” people and things. You’ve even found someone who sparks your interest – someone more entertaining who seems to be fulfilling what you feel like you’re missing (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Some people call this the 80/20 rule. You stopped working on your current relationship/marriage; you stopped watering and cultivating the grass in your yard and began admiring the [artificial] greenery in someone else’s yard. You’re enjoying this high you’re on because you’re now “living your best life”. Things were too dull and became too much to deal with in your marriage. You fail to realize that your relationship is salvageable & grow further and further away, less and less interested in making it work because pride says “I’ve done too much to go back; I’ve been gone too long” and lust says “it’s too fun out here. I deserve to be happy” [What’s good to the eyes isn’t always what’s best for the heart]. The Lord said to me that this is an example of a relationship between Him and a backslider.

Jeremiah 17: 9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Jeremiah 3:14 “Turne, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.” (KJV)

Return back to the beginning when you first received salvation and revaluate “why” you made the choice to. We don’t always take into account how much the things here on earth is parallel to the things in the sprit realm. Just as we can gradually lose interest or fall out of love with a human being, regardless of how many years you’ve been a couple, the same thing can happen with our relationship with God if we don’t stay in constant communication with him and if we start to having wondering eyes and itchy ears for the things of outside influences.

Life gets hard and sometimes painful, unexpected events takes place but, we should NEVER forget who God is and has always been to us. And for any reason we do, we should NEVER turn our back on him. Sometimes it’s not a matter of leaving God physically by committing obvious sins but, we can gradually leave Him by entertaining things that he despises, more regularly. For example, a person can still be married to you, still in the home with you but, gradually leave you mentally and emotionally. Before you know it, they’re totally gone while still lying next to you. You notice their disconnect and bring attention to it but, they say to you, “I never left you or filed for a divorce”. Meanwhile, they’ve checked out or began entertaining impure and unhealthy things outside of your marriage/relationship.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. – 1 Cor.13:4-8

Many of us are familiar with this scripture (1 Cor. 13:4-8). By reading this, it’s clear on what love is and what it isn’t, right? Well, I’m going to share a little nugget that the Lord shared with me. He said to me: “Most people don’t have an understanding of what love is. Therefore, they’re not able to receive it or reciprocate it effectively & in the way that brings me honor.” So what is love based on 1 Cor. 13:4-8? First let’s address that the opposite of love isn’t hate but, it’s pride. Pride is the root for feelings of animosity, bitterness, hatred, jealousy, strife & everything evil.

1 John 2:15-17 (NASB) “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

We know that God is the epitome of love; He is love and he hates pride. So, our expression of love towards The Father should be to oppose and hate the things God hates. 1 Cor. 13: 6 says, “love doesn’t delight in evil but, it rejoices in the truth”. Prov. 8:13 (NKJV) says, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.” Verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 13 says love IS NOT proud but, it is kind and patient. Even when we think in our heart or speak out of our mouth, ‘I feel like I shouldn’t have to go through this; this is taking too long’, we operate in pride and God opposes the proud (James 4:6). Some things God wants us to go through for the purpose of pruning, training, correcting and discipling us, because of His love for us, we behave as if we’re above those things. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Prov. 16:18).

Correction is God’s Protection

Chastisement is an expression of God’s love for us. He corrects & discipline us when we’re wrong in order for us live holy and righteously according to His will. When we reject chastisement, we reject God’s love. When we continue to live and behave as if we’re above correction and don’t need or want correction, it’s rebellion (pride) towards Yahweh.

Hebrew 12: 8 (NIV) If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.

Like any good parent, God is concerned about us and our well-being. He loves us too much to not correct and discipline us when need be. The punishment he gives is not from a place of malice or hatred; that’s not who He is. There’s no evil in God. The opposer deceives us by telling us that when we’re being corrected, we’re being disrespected because our “pride” and feelings are hurt. Don’t take this statement out of context but, God is not concerned about our feelings at the expense of us losing our soul. Most of the times, our feelings come from a place that is hostile towards God, our flesh (Romans 8:7).

Hebrew 12:6-7 (NKJV) “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?”

Rebuke a word that many interprets as judgement but, when it’s done through the love of God, it’s essential for our spiritual growth. When God reprimands or rebukes us, it’s also a way that he shows us that he loves and cares about us. When He reprimands us, He warns us of danger of the devour; our opposer and adversary. In today’s culture, the majority despises rebuking, rather it be in the open or in private. Many want to continue doing whatever it is that “they” want to do & it’s the presumptuous sin of people that causes God to rebuke (reprimand; reprove) us (Ezekiel 5; Hosea 5).

1 Tim 5: 20 “As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.”

Titus 1:13 (NIV) “This saying is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith.”

Prov. 27:5-6 (NKJV) “Open rebuke is better Than love carefully concealed. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

To withhold the truth, specifically God’s Truth, from someone IS NOT love. We cause harm to others and ourselves when we fail to warn them and tell them the truth. The Adversary deceives us with lies that chastisement and rebuking isn’t love and isn’t from God. Believing the lies of the enemy keeps us in our feelings; pride, that produces shame, resentment, rejection and rebellion. We continue to live and function in error, walking in darkness, when reject The Truth (John 1:1-14). The Love of God is truthful, faithful and it comes with correction (chastisement and rebuking). He knows what’s best for us better than we know what’s best for ourselves (Jeremiah 1:5; 29:11)

John 14:6 (AMP) “Jesus said to him, “I am the [only] Way [to God] and the [real] Truth and the [real] Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

2 Tim 4:2-4 (KJV) “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

Love IS NOT telling someone what they want to hear to make their flesh feel good. Love IS NOT walking on eggshells so that you don’t offend people with The Truth. Love IS NOT condoning or partaking in sin. Love IS correction and protection. We can’t properly express or receive God’s love, agape’ love, without chastisement and rebuking. Keep in mind that our words are to be seasoned with salt; “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Col. 4:6) but, when we fail to speak what God says and live by what he says, we do ourselves a disservice. We become the victim of our own demise. God and His word are one and His word doesn’t change to pacify our feelings. He says what He means, and He means what He says, with love. (Heb. 13:8-25)

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NKJV)”All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

John 1:1 (NIV) “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

GALATIANS 4:1-3 (NLT)

Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. ² They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set. ³ And that’s the way it was with us before Christ came. We were like children; we were slaves to the basic spiritual principles^[a] of this world.

Being easily triggered or offended by things is an indication that we’re spiritually and mentally immature. We can internalize and translate things in our mind that either doesn’t align with what God says about us and/or a situation. Sometimes it’s just us projecting our insecurities onto someone else. We start out as babes in Christ but, once we repent and give our life to God, we’re expected to grow into spiritual adulthood. He wants growth, maturity and productivity out of us. Our childish ways of thinking and behaving keeps us from receiving our inheritance, The Promise. There are things inherited to us by our Heavenly father that we can only receive once we reach a certain level of maturity.

GROW INTO YOUR INHERITANCE! DON’T MISS WHAT THE FATHER HAS PROMISED YOU BY BEING IMMATURE.

Maturity requires self-awareness and acknowledgement. There are times when we have to admit some uncomfortable facts about ourselves. We have to acknowledge when we’re mentally and spiritually childish and need to grow up. Immaturity is unacceptable to God. He wants us humble and child-like (teachable) but, NOT immature.

1 Cor. 13:11 (KJV) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

1 Cor. 14:20 (NLT) Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things. Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.

(AMP) Brothers and sisters, do not be children [immature, childlike] in your thinking; be infants in [matters of] evil [completely innocent and inexperienced], but in your minds be mature [adults].

Prov. 22:4 (ESV) The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.

1. WHAT IN YOUR LIFE IS CHILDISH?
   1. What worked for you last year (season) that isn’t going to work for you in this year (season)?
      • Instead of changing everything around you to fit your suit, CHANGE YOUR SUIT
      • Change environments and influences
   2. Recognize that old you is no longer NEW you
      1. STAY ON THE WALL & DON’T COME DOWN
         • Stay where you are until the work God is doing within you and through you is perfected/completed.

Philip. 1:6 (NKJV) being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Nehemiah 6:3 (AMP) So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave to come down to [meet with] you?

1.) We were slaves to the law UNTIL Jesus came

• Remain in the place and posture God instructed you to be in UNTIL he says otherwise
  • No one else has to understand what God is saying or doing through you; He will reveal to those connected to him
• Don’t entertain trivial or vain comments. They’re sent as a distraction
  • Keep your eyes and focus on God and on your assignment
  • You’re NOT responsible for what “they” say but, you’re responsible for your response to what they say.
  • FOCUS on what God says to you…

1. You ARE a child of the promise
2. You ARE no longer a slave to sin or your past
3. The Son has made you FREE
4. You ARE right where you’re supposed to be when you’re in the Will of God
5. HE WILL establish you and perfect the work He’s doing through you

GAL. 4:28-31 (NLT)

²⁸ And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. ²⁹ But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. ³⁰ But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^[j] 31 So, dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman; we are children of the free woman.