Love is a person, not a word.
Love is a person, not a word. The Apostle John said that “Yah is love” (1Jn 4:8). In our attempts and expressions of love toward Yah and each other, I believe that we are truly missing the mark. In essence we’re not trying to learn to love, love is someone that we are striving to become.
Yah is love, and we are to “be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect.” This love cannot be taught, explained, or learned; it is experienced. Love is so vital that the apostle Paul says to the Corinthian church, “And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (Yah’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody)” (1Co 13:2 AMP).
How is it that we can know all mysteries and secrets being opened to us and yet not have love?
How is it that we can know all mysteries and secrets being opened to us and yet not have love? The Apostle Paul goes on to further explain that the reason why there is no love is because it lacks the characteristics and virtues of Yah that pertain to the soul. The Apostle Paul said that “love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom 13:10 AMP), with the Apostle John in agreement stating, “For this is the love of Yah, that we keep His commandments” (1Jn_5:3), and “[simply recalling to your mind] the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And what this love consists in is this: that we live and walk in accordance with and guided by His commandments (His orders, ordinances, precepts, teaching). This is the commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you continue to walk in love [guided by it and following it]” (2Jn 1:5-6). We can say we know the mysteries and afflict ourselves with fasting, and yet if we do not walk out the commandments of Yah toward each other, we are vain and empty.
We are to fulfill the commandments of Yah out of love and not out of a place of fear or even for the expectation of reward. The scripture is clear that love is not self-seeking, so our obedience to the commandments of Yah is not for purpose of seeking reward or out of fear of going to hell. Though those who fulfill the commandments as such are rewarded; however, those who seek to fulfill the commandments of Yah simply out of love receive a much greater gift that we cannot fathom.
Those who seek to fulfill the commandments of Yah simply out of love receive a much greater gift that we cannot fathom.
“Now all the generations from Adam to this day are gone. But they who have been perfected in love, through the grace of God, hold the place of the godly, who shall be manifested at the visitation of the kingdom of Christ.” Love permits not to sin; but if it fall into any such case, by reason of the interference of the adversary, in imitation of David, it will sing: “I will confess unto the Lord, and it will please Him above a young bullock that has horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it, and be glad.” For he says, “Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay to the Lord thy vows; and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.” (Psa 50:14, Psa 50:15) “For the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit.” (Psa 51:17)
“God,” then, being good, “is love,” it is said. (1Jo 4:8, 1Jo 4:8) Whose “love worketh no ill to his neighbour,” (Rom 13:10) neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God. “Love is,” then, “the fulfilling of the law;” (Rom 13:10) like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ. By love, then, the commands not to commit adultery, and not to covet one’s neighbor’s wife, are fulfilled, [these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear.
The same work, then, presents a difference, according as it is done by fear, or accomplished by love, and is wrought by faith or by knowledge. Rightly, therefore, their rewards are different. To the Gnostic “are prepared what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man;” but to him who has exercised simple faith He testifies a hundredfold in return for what he has left, – a promise which has turned out to fall within human comprehension. [1]
1Jo_2:3 “And by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.” For the Gnostic [he who knows also does the works which pertain to the province of virtue. But he who performs the works is not necessarily also a Gnostic. For a man may be a doer of right works, and yet not a knower of the mysteries of science. Finally, knowing that some works are performed from fear of punishment, and some on account of the promise of reward, he shows the perfection of the man gifted with knowledge, who fulfils his works by love. [2]
In Hebrew, the word “commandment” speaks of “a code of wisdom” [3]. Jesus said ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR [YAH] WITH ALL YOUR HEART, WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ (38) This is the first and great commandment. (39) And the second is like it: ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ (40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Mat 22:37-40). The word “Law” is “nomos,” and it denotes “the moral instruction given by Christ, especially the precept concerning love” [4]. This is how we are to prepare ourselves to become the temple of Yah, an abode for the Father to abide in us (Joh 14:21). We’re being made in His image again by the commandments being understood and walked out in our lives; it is how our soul is purified, by obedience to that truth (1Pe 1:22).
It is imperative that we are balanced in our studying of the divine Word, that we not only press into the deep mysteries of the Word, but also the often overlooked mode of revelation, the moral. It is to be just as revered and obeyed, for without it, we will partake of the body of Christ unworthily. Origen describes the importance of having both.
May it be that as bread nourishes and makes strong, and is said to strengthen the heart of man, but wine, on the contrary, pleases and rejoices and melts him, so ethical studies, bringing life to him who learns them and reduces them to practice, are the bread of life, but cannot properly be called the fruit of the vine, while secret and mystical speculations, rejoicing the heart and causing those to feel inspired who take them in, delighting in the Lord, and who desire not only to be nourished but to be made happy, are called the juice of the true vine, because they flow from it. [5]
There is a balance that we must utilize in our Christian walk, otherwise our love can grow cold and we’ll be called liars by the One whom we say we love. Imagine that, we press into knowing the mysteries of the kingdom, fast, pray, etc. yet due to an unforgiving heart or resentment toward a brother in Christ or just anyone in general, the Apostle John declares that we are truly liars and the love of Yah is not in us (1Jo 2:4; 1Jo 4:20). The true character and meaning of the commandments is the image of Yah, love. Yah is love; Yah is Torah. Amen.
References:
1. Clement-Stromata Bk. 4 Ch. XVIII, Vol. 2
2. Clement-Fragments Ch. III, Vol. 2
3. H4687 mitzvah BDB dictionary
4. G3551 Thayer Dictionary
5. Origen- Vol. 9 Gospel of John Book 1 Pt. 2
