Conditional love-by Angela Malele November 5, 2010

“I love you.” This popular phrase is said the world over in different languages among various relationships mother/daughter, son/father, father/daughter, husband/wife, brother/sister and other bonds these words signify love in varying degrees, yet when the word love is used I often think: do we really stop to realize the true meaning of the word?

Of course, I’ve been told by different people throughout my life that they “love” me. Most have shown it by not only conveying the word out of their mouths, but putting action behind it as well. For instance, parents  typically not only say they love you, but display their love by being concerned about your well being, calling, praying

"Your mother and I thought you understood, Billy, that our love for you was highly conditional on you doing well in school."

for you and other love based actions. However, there are some parents who measure out how much love they will give their children based on their performance in school or decisions they may make as they grow up. It goes without saying that this type of love is completely messed up and causes a lot of emotional damage to certain people later in life.

I know personally I have thrown the word around a lot and have to stop and think how I can put action behind the love word. Jesus tells us in John 14:15 that love is something one does and not just what one says “if you love me keep my commandments.”

Sometimes, I show my love for my family by helping them whenever they need it like lending a hand to my 82 year-old grandfather around the house, driving them around, spending time with them, buying them something “just because,” showing affection with a hug, a kiss on the cheek, emotional support during difficult times,  a smile or kind and encouraging words.

Besides familial love, there is the love between a man and a woman, the kind of love most desire, but few obtain(not the true kind anyway). Nevertheless, what I have found personally is that most of these relationships are based on conditional love. Worldly love tells us,  “I love you IF you look this way, or IF you do this or do that. Furthermore, IF you don’t do something I want then I don’t love you anymore and I will withhold my affections from you in order to manipulate you so I can get my way.”

Once more, numerous people equate feelings of lust with love they will tell you they love you and if you’re dumb enough to fall for it, you will find yourself falling for the trap only to be fooled. Hearing “that word” from someone of the opposite sex doesn’t even phase me anymore. It’s so over used and insincere and I am truly glad I have grown up to the point where I no longer need such affirmations from a male.

Now don’t get me wrong, meeting another nice guy like my late husband who is not intimidated by my intelligence and most of all, my commitment to Christ would be awesome, but like I stated in one of my previous blogs, lots of men(not all) are truly messed up. Too  many distractions, plus their pride, haughtiness and arrogance is a bit much for a single woman like me to compete with. I’m like, just forget it! LOL! When it’s all said and done, the TRUE  love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is the most sincere example of what this frequently misused word actually signifies. . .

“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.”

I am sure lots of my readers can relate to having countless people of the opposite sex declare their undying love for them. In a haste, you get involved only to discover that this person’s “love” is not that of 1 Corinthians 13, but the world’s version of  it. That is to say, it’s petty, fake, and superficial. What if Jesus loved us with conditions? What if Jesus’ love for us was not genuine? If he said to us, I will love you, but only if you do what I want.

Of course, Christ does have commandments we as believers should strive to keep, but even if we don’t, he still loves us though he may not be pleased with some of our choices and if we don’t repent we risk eternal damnation. But, what if He, the one who suffered for us enduring persecution by his own people, being brutally beaten on the cross for our sins past, present and future decided to base his mission for our redemption on us being perfect? We’d be in a big heaping bowl of T-R-O-U-B-L-E that’s what.   In the Gospel of John 15:13, Christ gives us yet another example of what it means to truly love. He said the greatest example of love is when someone would lay their lives down for one of their friends and family.

Sometimes we even have the nerve to conditionally love Jesus.  If things are going our way we will praise Him and talk about how good he is, but the minute we don’t get our way, then the praise turns off, we may go as far as to stop praying, serving, living right and even putting the brakes on going  to church!  What do you base your “love” on? Is it contingent upon conditions or do you love unconditionally?

I will close this blog out by challenging us to really examine how we toss around the “l” word. As believers, we should try our best to not allow”I love you” to be just another phrase or cliche statement heard in an unrequited worldly love song. For us, love should be so much more than a “card” we throw out just to get what we want and then walk away. I am so thankful that God’s love is not like that. Even when we have turned our backs on him and decide to return like the prodigal son, he lovingly receives us with open arms. Now that’s what I call real love.

 

Related Scriptures on UNCONDITIONAL love

 

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” John 17:24

“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” Matthew 7:11

“For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Ephesians 5:25

“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:10

‘The LORD appeared to us in the past,^[a] saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

Gnostic nonsense November 2, 2010

Pitiful. " For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough."- 2 Corinthians 11:4

I learned a new word today. Gnostic. Gnostic or gnosticism is related to having esoteric or mystical  knowledge. Derived from the Greek word “gnostos,” which means known,  people who practice gnosticism claim a “higher knowledge” that frees them from the so-called confines of “ignorance” (not living to satisfy the flesh).   These folks do not claim our LORD God as Jehovah/YHWH, but declare Lucifer/Satan  as  Jehovah. This is real talk saints.

Practitioners of gnosticism believe that Satan received a “raw deal,” when he was kicked out of heaven and they don’t believe he is “that bad” for convincing Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge. To esoterics, eating off “the tree of knowledge(Genesis 3:1-7)”  (practicing divination, witchcraft and other occultist practices), is breaking free of “ignorance” and basically declaring ones self as his/her own god.

These people are filtering into our churches and are preaching a gospel that is not of the one taught by Jesus Christ. They have the spirit of antichrist(1 John 4:1-3). Hint; If it don’t line up with Scripture it’s apostasy and heresy. Steer clear from those who teach in such ways!

Quite honestly, many of my blogs are influenced by the teachings of my pastor, Dan Tynch of Victory Outreach Kansas City,   Pastor G. Craige Lewis of EX Ministries, Pastors Keith Wesley of New Life in Christ International Ministries, George Barnes of Spruce Saint Matthews and other godly men who are not afraid of speaking the truth. Listening to their teachings has freed me so much that I want to share what I have learned with others.

My desire is to alert TRUE believers to be particularly watchful  in this day and hour. Especially in regard to idolizing athletes, performers and even well known corporate “big wigs.” Most of these people practice some form of esoteric religion that often mimics or comes close to being the faith which many of us follow.

Some of these mystics, in fact, refer to themselves as being “Christian.” Yet, there is one SLIGHT component missing. These groups do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God(1 John 4:1-3). They believe he existed, and that he was only a ‘regular person,’ much like you and I, but he had a ‘better understanding’ or ‘ higher knowledge’ than most of us with ‘narrow and intolerant’ minds (TRUE believers/Christians). Some of the faiths that espouse this NONSENSE are kabballah (Madonna, etc.), freemasonry and other secret societies (fraternities and sororities<—–more to come on this topic), Hebrew Israelites, Five percenters,, etc.

As Pastor Lewis points out in this week’s True Church broadcast, we really need to watch out who we call ourselves “fans” of. Numerous celebrities whom many of us follow, adhere to gnostic teachings and if we idolize them (idolatry), we leave ourselves open to their belief systems. Personally, when I was calling myself a “fan” of Erykah Badu and all the other neo-soul/”conscious’ hip hop artists, I was becoming more and more like them with every song I listened to, sang and memorized (while trying to “Christianize” the lyrics) and each concert I attended. Without even realizing it,  I was participating in their indoctrination rituals!

In conclusion, I have been set free and to be honest, I can’t stand those people anymore. They sicken me because they know the truth, but purposefully deny it to accept a lie that accommodates their desires to live for “them, themselves and them.” Mind you, a lot of  people who claim to be “saved,” are becoming more immersed in Christian mysticism. The book of Jude in the New Testament gives insight into the practice of “gnosticism” (although he doesn’t name it by name) making its’ way into the church. Again, I can’t stress enough how essential it is for us to always be alert for that devil is truly on the prowl seeking whom he can eat alive (1 Peter 5:8).

© 2010 Copyright M.A.I.S.H.A. Ministries

True Church Perspective: Gnosticism

Jude 1 (New International Version © 2010)

Jude 1

¹ Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,

To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for^[a] Jesus Christ:

² Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People

³ Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about^[b] long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

⁵ Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord^[c] at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling—these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day. ⁷ In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”^{[d] 10} Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.

¹¹ Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion.

¹² These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. ¹³ They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴ Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”^{[e] 16} These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷ But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. ¹⁸ They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹ These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

²² Be merciful to those who doubt; ²³ save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.^[f]

Doxology

²⁴ To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

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