The Word of Truth Ministries
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Mouth
Love Ain't no Love at All! |
|
|
“And
with their mouths they show much love.…” Many
find love a difficult word/emotion (?) to define. But what we call
love may not be love at all. Love is best defined as an outward
concern for another person’s significant well being. Such a
definition precludes
much of what is proffered as love today. Indeed, today, most people,
including Christians, have their arms so tightly wrapped around
themselves they cannot hug others--I speak metaphorically. And w Love
as a concept has been pondered by scholars and learned individuals
throughout all the ages of mankind. We have considered romantic
love, platonic love, Zoë love, Agape love; we have considered standing
in love, falling in love, and almost idling in love; females have
distinguished the idea of being in love with a person as opposed
to loving that person. We fashionably say, I love you. But there is little meaning to those words. The young man who tells the young woman he loves her usually is seeking an avenue of travel to other places with her; a son or daughter who tells a parent he or she loves that parent is also going somewhere by the pronouncement. Love is a label we place on many things and expect that it has magical powers. That expectation is a human condition we too often attempt to pawn off on God. But God said to Jeremiah and to all of humankind, Before I form thee in the belly, I knew thee. [Jer. 1:5] He knows our going and coming, He knows our thoughts afar off. God knows what is in man. And since He knows man, there is no school of thought man can use to deceive Him. Yet man comes to God with a human notion and seeks to place that notion in the construct of God. Many a souls have lingered in pain and confusion wondering why they have not obtained the promised gift of God's spirit after they have fulfilled God's promise. Take the promise of Acts 2:38. There God promises that He will give the infilling of His spirit to all who repent. Because we have human definitions we attempt to place on God and outright reject God's definition, many come to this clearly stated promise of God with their definitions and wonder why God does not respond to them. God's declaration is this: My thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways; as high as the heaven is from the earth so are my ways and my thoughts from yours! [Isa.55:80] We must accept God's definitions and ways to understand His word and allow it to work for us. Beyond being vague, love is deceptive because it has been used so loosely and so meaninglessly. Men at death's door have used the expression, I love you, to say farewell; lovers have used the expression to advance amorous desires; politicians, in an election campaign, have used the term to mean thanks for the work, the money, and the votes; entertainers have used the term to solicit applauds. So the word as used today by men is a corruption of that word's true meaning. Generally, words have two basic meaning styles: Denotative and Connotative meanings. The first is the meaning of a word as found in a dictionary; the second is the meaning of a word as it is associated by frequent use in certain settings and contexts. But beyond that construction, words take their meaning by stipulation--a certain way a word is used by agreement. As an example, if I determine that I will, for purposes of a certain discussion, divide the contents of a room into two types, say black and white, that use and determination must be agreed to and understood. Once agreed to, I then proceed to explain that all light-colored items are white and all darker-colored items are black. That makes division easy; it is a definition by stipulation. As God has defined repentance His way in Acts 2:38, which way seems to be hidden from the minds of many, He has also defined love His way, and that, too, seems to be hidden from the minds of most believers. Most people use love in any way that catches their fancy. But God's stipulated use of the word takes precedent over our loose and confused definitions. In Isaiah and Ezekiel, God said that the people love Him with their mouths, but their hearts are far from Him: With the mouth they show much love. Not only is this so toward God, but it is so toward each other. As a result, we offer God the same superficial love definitions we give to each other--mouth love! Love is really not an emotion. It is an action that is done toward, to, and for another. Indeed, affection is not love, and it need not have anything to do with love. It is affection, and kissing is kissing; it may be meant as an expression of love, but love is demonstrated when one projects a significant outward concern for another person's significant well being. Many times, because we are living in a nation and a world of immediate gratifications, which are often superficial and immature, when one fails to respond to immediate, superficial needs of another, the immature other will protest that he or she is not loved by that someone because immediate, insignificant, and often harmful, needs are not met by the one who loves him or her. These are the fallacies of love superficially defined, practiced, and understood by many. This is mouth love. Paul wrote of love, real godly defined love, in 1 Corinthians 13. Notice that as he delineates love, we see that love is an act, a work, a behavior, rather than emotions and vague expressions of felicitous love. Love suffers long and is kind; love is not puffed up; it vaunts not itself; love never fails; love bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. See how far removed God's defined love is from what we see of our love: mere expressions of how one loves God and his neighbor. Love is an expressive behavior and action. Verbal expressions of love are only mouth love. And how we love much with our mouths, while keeping the heart far from the work of love. But mouth love, said plainly, ain't no love at all! God
so loved the world that He did an action. That is how love comes.
It comes in work and behavior, not in vague, meaningless, and insincere
words. God gave His only begotten son to die for the sins of the
world. [John 3:16]
Mouth love is executed simply by speaking it. But when love is not
demonstrated, it does not really exist. Love then, becomes only
an emotion, a feeling in the gut that makes one feel bubbly and
confused. Indeed, those are emotions, and those emotions are not
love in the sense that it is importantly used in scripture. The
model and definition for our love is God’s love toward us, His creation.
God loved and did. Today we love and say, as
opposed to doing. Such behavior attempts to hijack God's definition
of love. If love is not demonstrated it does not exist: Love demands
the DO; instead, we have substituted the say. To
say is easy; it is the sacrifice of fools--his voluminous
words. [Ecc.5:1] The poor fool is
deceived into thinking he can talk his way through life. But life,
as does God, demands more, but he cannot see that more because he
is a fool. But Christ is made unto us wisdom and sanctification.[1
Cor.1:30] So we should see the more that God requires
of us. We should not be blind as fools, yet when we substitute words
for deeds, we become fools in God’s sight. This is also true in
relationships and in business. Many words are vain, unless one’s
business is words. Today, that power and life of Christ have been substituted for riches. And like the worldly criminals who are doing anything to get rich, Christians, and especially the leadership in the church, are running headlong after riches, calling them the blessings of the Lord. Instead of offering their bodies as living sacrifices, which action is their reasonable service, [Rom. 12:1] they are offering God words of love and behaviors of hate. And these individuals call themselves Christians, defining love in their own ways. But that behavior isonly mouth love, and God has indicated in His word that mouth love ain't no love at all! . | |
Copyright © 2002 by The Truth of God