Love

 

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself; is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek it’s own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

1Cor 13:4-8.

 

“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying it’s power. And from such people turn away! For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds; disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”

2 Tim 3:1-8.

 

“I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner-not even to eat with such a person.”1 Cor 5:9-11.

 

Who were Jannes and Jambres and how did they resist Moses? It is thought they were of the magicians who were also able to turn their rods into serpents as related in Exodus 7:8-19. God commissions Moses and Aaron to appear before Pharoah saying “See, I have made you as God to Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.” Later “When Pharoah speaks to you, saying, “Show a miracle for yourselves,” then you shall say to Aaron, “Take your rod and cast it before Pharoah, and let it become a serpent.”” So they did and so it happened and when the magicians likewise turned their rods into serpents, that of Aaron ate the others.

 

God is love. His Son is called the good Shepherd, one who takes good care of His sheep. The kingdom of darkness cannot comprehend love. It is filled with hate of God and man, created in God’s image and fear of ultimate destruction which they know is sealed and coming.

Fulfillment of sexual desire is not love. It is not mentioned in the definition above and has been corrupted by evil and used against the church, the Bride of Christ, for centuries. Where immorality is not dealt with in the church, licentiousness leads to slavery where victory over sin and death is no more an expectation and the sacrifice of Our Lord becomes nothing more than a quick fix for ongoing guilt. The Holy Spirit departs and the people are left to their own devices. As Paul says, their folly will be manifest to all. Destruction follows. Destruction of relationships, families, communities and where the moral standard of The Church is silenced, destruction of the nation. The sheep in the fold have no option but to do as the Holy Spirit does. They cannot eat at the same table any longer. They leave.

 

Thankfully there is a remedy to sin: sincere repentance. Turning away from what is evil and desiring earnestly to serve The Lord in love. As He is, so we become and as we do we have fellowship with one another.

 

Aaron’s snake became a rod again. David says in Psalm 23 “Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” The rod for correction, the staff for protection. The Good Shepherd does both. It is good to be close to Him always. Our love for Him will determine how far we are.