By: Phil Hopkins
Over the years I have encountered a number of folks who claim to love God, but they always want to continue to hold on to their various denominational doctrines. Anyone familiar with Christianity realizes that the Christian is to love God, but what does that really mean? Is loving God simply having a feeling (emotion) of love towards God? Can we really love God and continue living life as we want? Is saying that we love God the same as practicing that love?Christ, when queried, made it perfectly clear that to love God is first and foremost: Mark 12:29 “Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one: 30 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. 31 The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandments greater than these.” There can be no question, we are to devote every fiber of our being in loving God. Our lives are to be committed to loving God. But what does this actually mean? What are the behaviors of one who loves God as he or she should? Again, Christ made this perfectly clear, To love Him (God) is to obey Him: John. 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments. 21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” And John further amplified this in 1 John. 5: 3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” As John previously wrote that Christ said: John 15:10 “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” We are to be as faithful in obeying God as Jesus was. If we do so, our love for God will be as Christ’s love for God was – obedient, however, if we don’t, we will be showing that we really don’t love God. Our disobedience will separate us from God and His blessings. Over the years, I have had several Christians tell me that some person that they know had to be a Christian as shown to them by some of that person’s behaviors. That they were very loving and kind, but upon further questioning, I find out that the aforementioned person was a member of some denominational group. When I hear such, I wonder about the thinking of the one who told me that. How can anyone be a Christian and not be willing to love God enough to obey Him? No matter how loving or caring or kind or gentle a person is, how can they be in harmony with God when they are in rebellion to His will? They either haven’t obeyed God to become a Christian and are ignorant of God’s will and need to be taught or, aren’t willing to obey Him in the manner He prescribes. There is no possible way one can be both in rebellion to God by disobeying Him and be a faithful Christian, implying that they are in harmony with God. For example, few, if any in the denominational world recognize and teach that one must be baptized (immersed) to receive remission of sins –Mark 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”, Acts 2:38 “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Over and over again I have had those in the denominations fight tooth and nail to reject these clear Bible teachings. They are NOT people who love God, no matter what they say. For example, I have had Baptists use the dodge which Thomas Robertson tried in his well-known book “Word pictures in the New Testament”, published between 1930 to 1933. In Acts 2:38 the Greek reads: eis aphesin tōn hamartiōn hūmōn (εἰς ἄφεσιν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ὑμῶν). This phrase literally translates “unto the forgiveness of sins”. However Mr. Robertson doesn’t want to accept this, so he states: “My view is decidedly against the idea that Peter, Paul, or anyone in the New Testament taught baptism as essential to the remission of sins or the means of securing such remission. So I understand Peter to be urging baptism on each of them who had already turned (repented) and for it to be done in the name of Jesus Christ on the basis of the forgiveness of sins which they had already received.” He wants to change the Greek word “eis” which means “unto”, into the word because. Two key objections to his position, first, nowhere in the Bible is the word eis ever translated into the word because, no matter what Mr. Robertson desires and secondly, there is another verse in the New Testament that uses the same phrase and even Mr. Robertson recognizes that eis means unto in that verse. We find that phrase in Matthew 26:28 “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” If the word eis means for or unto in Matthew it must mean for or unto in Acts. Notice the disingenuous way the Mr. Robertson writes about this verse: “Unto remission of sins (eis aphesin hamartiōn). This clause is in Matthew alone but it is not to be restricted for that reason. It is the truth. This passage answers all the modern sentimentalism that finds in the teaching of Jesus only pious ethical remarks or eschatological dreamings. He had the definite conception of His death on the cross as the basis of forgiveness of sin. The purpose of the shedding of His blood of the New Covenant was precisely to remove (forgive) sins.”He knows, as does any honest translator, that in two identical parallel passages, the translations must say and mean the same things. If eis means for in Matthew 26:28 it must mean for and not because in Acts 2:38 His preconceived beliefs come out in a false way that he handles Acts 2:38 and he refuses to submit to clear Bible teaching. This is not love for God and His word. This is putting one’s self will and pride ahead of what God teaches. It shows one who does not love and respect God. Mr. Robertson put his denominational teaching first, not God’s teachings. What a shame. He clearly was not loving God with his whole heart, soul and mind This also can happen with ourselves, when we let our feelings blind us to what really happens when one disobeys God. We may love and care for someone very much but we cannot let ourselves be blinded to what is really happening when one does not completely love God. When one is willing to put some denomination teaching ahead of God’s teaching. They are not obeying God and as such disobedience is equivalent to not loving God. How can one hope to go to heaven when by their behaviors they show that they do not love God? Let us not fall into that trap, may we always serve God and love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind.