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Avoiding Indiscriminate Love
Grace to You.org ^ | 1993 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

Posted on 02/19/2017 5:01:49 AM PST by metmom

"This I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment" (Phil. 1:9).

Christian love operates within the parameters of Biblical knowledge and spiritual discernment.

As a Christian, you are a repository of divine love. More than anything else, your love for God and for other believers marks you as a true disciple of Jesus Christ (John 13:35).

In addition to possessing God's love, you have the privilege and responsibility of expressing it to others on His behalf. That's a sacred trust. Paul qualifies it in Philippians 1:9, which tells us love is to operate within the sphere of biblical knowledge and spiritual discernment. Those are the parameters that govern God's love.

No matter how loving an act or word might seem, if it violates knowledge and discernment, it is not true Christian love. Second John 5-11 illustrates that principle. Apparently some believers who lacked discernment were hosting false teachers in the name of Christian love and hospitality. John sternly warned them, saying, "If anyone comes to you and does not bring [sound doctrine], do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds" (vv. 10-11). That might sound extreme or unloving but the purity of God's people was at stake.

In 2 Thessalonians 3:5-6 after praying for the Thessalonians' love to increase, Paul then commanded them to keep aloof from so- called Christians who were disregarding sound teaching. That's not contradictory because Christian love guards sound doctrine and holy living.

Unfortunately, today it is common for Christians to compromise doctrinal purity in the name of love and unity, or to brand as unloving some practices that Scripture clearly commands. Both are wrong and carry serious consequences if not corrected.

Be thoughtful in how you express your love. Abundantly supply it in accord with biblical knowledge and discernment. Excellence and righteousness will result (Phil. 1:10-11).

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for the love He has given you through His Spirit (Rom. 5:5). Ask for opportunities to demonstrate Christ's love to others today. Pray that your love will always be governed by deep convictions grounded in God's truth. For Further Study

What do the following passages teach about love? How can you apply them to your life? Romans 12:9-10; 5:5; 1 John 4:7-10; Galatians 5:22; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: gty

1 posted on 02/19/2017 5:01:49 AM PST by metmom
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To: Alex Murphy; bkaycee; boatbums; CynicalBear; daniel1212; dragonblustar; Dutchboy88; ealgeone; ...

Studying God’s Word ping


2 posted on 02/19/2017 5:02:17 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

A much needed reminder that we be “ wise as serpents and innocent as doves”. We are not commanded, in the name of Love, to embrace everyone and every idea.

Love is not “the warm fuzzies”. Love does that which is in accordance with God’s word and in the best interests of the other person. It does not include being an ‘enabler’ for their sin so that you will not hurt their feelings.


3 posted on 02/19/2017 6:28:11 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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To: BwanaNdege

I just had to dispense some tough love on someone I had been trying to help for years.

She didn’t really want the help. She only called me when she needed something and tried to manipulate me into helping her.

She needs to confront some things about herself and every indication from the many people who have tried to help her is that she doesn’t really want it as much as validation.

Every time she got really close to actually doing something that would help her, she’d bail on the people who were trying to help her.


4 posted on 02/19/2017 6:50:22 AM PST by metmom (...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

Sometimes you just need to tell them the story of the little bird who waited too long to fly South for the winter.


5 posted on 02/19/2017 8:38:06 AM PST by BwanaNdege ("The church ... is not the master or the servant of the state, but the conscience" - Luther)
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To: metmom
"If anyone comes to you and does not bring [sound doctrine], do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds"

Jesus wants us to love each other as He loves us and that is not a discriminating love, or a conditional sort of love based upon merit or some checklist. It is not a love that is difficult to obtain and easy to lose.

To be honest, I've had a lot of trouble with this one, both with other people and especially with me and my own self.

To me, that sort of love is tough to find or express to the sick and dying and the dead, because, in their sickness, they bring many contagions that could easily infect you, too, and your own house.

Yet, we are to be like a physician who never turns away from the sick and the dying, not when they are in their greatest need.

To heal the sick, and for the dead to be risen, we physicians in Christ are to repay evil with love and mercy, as He did.

Instead, whether in the moment or over time, we often fall back on Natural Law's "Eye for an eye" clause and repay evil with retribution, in whatever vengeance required, that we feel is justified, thus healing nothing.

In this way, we greet the sickness, thus bringing in and succumbing to the very evil we believe we've just slain.

That Satan character is one tricky dude when it comes to handling the human ego.

None the less, there can always be a happy ending with the right medicine, even for Darth Vader.

At first, I didn't think I had many references in my life to study to understand what this love looks like.

Ultimately I figured it's kinda like what Luke Skywalker said about his daddy, Darth, "There is still good in him."

And that was all Luke needed to know to do what he had to do to save his daddy Darth from the evil emperor. And it worked! He did it!

Luke: I'll not leave you here. I've got to save you.
Anakin: You already have, Luke.
Through our modern fable of a galaxy far, far away, we learn how greeting and giving in to the dark side eventually turns us into Sith Lords, as John warns about.

However, our repaying evil with love can cause even the deader than Darth Vaders to "Let go of the hate" and be risen.

6 posted on 02/19/2017 8:59:03 AM PST by GBA (Here in the matrix, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.)
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To: metmom
In 2 Thessalonians 3:5-6 after praying for the Thessalonians' love to increase, Paul then commanded them to keep aloof from so- called Christians who were disregarding sound teaching.

HEY!!!



7 posted on 02/20/2017 4:46:16 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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