For the Love of God

By brother R Michel Lankford

In This Study:

-          Identifying False Doctrine

-          As Long as You Love that’s All You Need.

-          God and His Gospel Are NOT Schizoid

Identifying False Doctrine

There are basically two KEY ways of identifying False Doctrine

• It Does Not Agree with Scripture: Any idea that is NOT CONSISTENT with RIGHTLY divided Scripture is not the truth, because according to Messiah, God’s Word is the definition of TRUTH, (John 17:17).

• It Does Not Consistently Agree with Itself: Any doctrine that does NOT remain true to itself and its own standard of measurement is man-made, it’s NOT of God, and is therefore NOT true. So any doctrine or belief system that contradicts itself or violates its own stated standards, is not consistent, it’s not of God, and such a doctrine is obviously FALSE.

As Long as You Love That is All You Need

What we’re going to address now is one of the most prevalent false doctrines in all of modern-day Christianity. It’s extremely popular. It’s widespread. It’s EXTREMELY FALSE.

If you talk to most Christians about the need to obey almost any Commandment in Scripture which either they do not personally favor, or which they have been taught by tradition to ignore as obsolete, most believe that they should not have to do any more, (no matter if the commandment comes from the Old Testament or the New Testament), the response you will hear is generally always the same:

Since Messiah died, the only Commandments which we must obey now is to love God with all our being and love our neighbor as ourselves. Since we are under Grace through Messiah, we can now ignore and do the opposite of every other Commandment as long as we obey these two.

Because supposedly in obeying these two, you fulfill the rest even if you willfully disobey all the others.

"You shall LOVE the LORD your God, with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two concepts depend the entire Law and the Prophets," (Matthew 22:36-40).

The majority of modern-day Christians will tell you, and in fact will passionately insist upon the concept that this law, is still binding upon the Christian. In fact most Christians today believe that as long as you KEEP this particular Commandment, then you can ignore and do the opposite of all the other Commandments because, supposedly, since Jesus died on the cross, the greatest Commandments are supposedly the only ones that are still binding upon the Christian. The problem is, how do you truly FULFILL and truly OBEY this ONE ALL IMPORTANT Commandment?

According to the NEW TESTAMENT, we have the biblical definition of what it means to LOVE GOD:

As it is written:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For THIS IS the love of God, that we KEEP His commandments. And His commandments are NOT burdensome.” (1 John 5:2-3, NKJV-with emphasis)

FACT: According to the NEW TESTAMENT, the way we show that we are growing in love for the children of God, is when we love God and we KEEP His Commandments.

FACT: According to the NEW TESTAMENT, The DEFINITION of LOVING GOD is KEEPING God's Commandments.

FACT: According to the NEW TESTAMENT,(1 John 2:5-6), one of the principal ways that we can tell that our love for God is growing and becoming more perfected is that more and more we will be obeying Yahweh's commandments in the same manner that Messiah KEPT Yahweh's Word. The more I am able to keep Yahweh's Word the same way Messiah did, the more I can identify that my Love toward Yahweh is in fact growing, and I'm being perfected in love.

FACT: Remember that in the original biblical text, the apostolic epistles, they were letters. They were not broken up into chapters and verses as we see them today. So keeping that in mind, let's take the concepts that we learn and 1 John chapter 2, and 1 John chapter 5, and put them together as one piece:

SUMMARY: According to the NEW TESTAMENT, (If you put 1 John 2:1-6, and 1 John 5:3 together as one letter), then you have the biblical definition of loving God:

• The way we love the children of God is by loving Yahweh and Keeping His Commandments.

• We know that we are growing in Love, when we understand the TRUTH, that learning and KEEPING Yahweh's Commandments is NOT burdensome. His Commands are a blessing, NOT a burden.

• The way that we know that we've come to KNOW God is to KEEP His Commandments.

• The way that we know that we have come to KNOW Messiah is to keep His Commandments.

• The one who says that he has come to KNOW Him, and yet does not keep the Commandments, is a LIAR.

• If I claim to abide in Jesus, then I need to learn and to walk as Jesus walked through this life, (1 John 2:6).

• Did Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God OBEY the Commandments of the Almighty Heavenly Father? Yes he did! And if I claim to abide in Jesus, then if I'm going to learn to walk as Yeshua walked, then I must learn to do the same.

• Did Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God KEEP the biblical feasts of the LORD? Yes he did! And if I claim to abide in Jesus, then if I'm going to learn to walk as Yeshua walked, then I must learn to do the same.

• Did Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God REFUSE to mix pagan religious customs with worshiping Yahweh, as He was Commanded to KEEP SEPARATE from those things in Deuteronomy 12:29-32; Jeremiah 10:1-2; did Messiah obey those Commandments?  Yes he did! And if I claim to abide in Jesus, then if I'm going to learn to walk as Yeshua walked, then I must also learn to do the same.

• The proof that my love for God is growing and increasingly becoming perfected is that I'm able to obey God more and more IN THE SAME WAY that Jesus obeyed God's Commandments. According to first John, that is the sign that my love toward Yahweh is being PERFECTED. That's what the apostle John said in his letter.

• Messiah was full of BOTH GRACE AND TRUTH (John 1:14). He was full of God's Law (Deuteronomy13:1-5; Psalm 119:142; Matthew 5:17-20). He Was full of God's Word (e.g.Deuteronomy 18:18; John 5:30). Jesus demonstrated that he loved the father by KEEPING the FATHER'S Commandments (John 15:10). Jesus ALSO walked in God's Grace and compassion at the SAME TIME (Matthew 20:34; Mark 5:19).

• We are instructed to walk AS MESSIAH WALKED (1 John 2:6). So it MUST be possible to obey God's Commandments, to agree with God's Word, and to be full of God's Grace at the same time. Jesus was full of BOTH GRACE and TRUTH, so the two concepts cannot be opposite of each other as most Christians so commonly believed today.

MAJOR DILEMMA: God and His Gospel are NOT SCHIZOID

Don’t Fall for the LIE.

If you ask the majority of Christians today they will tell you, (and most will be firmly convinced), that since Messiah died at the cross, and because we are, "Under grace," then Christians are no longer obligated to either learn or to keep Yahweh' is Commandments as Messiah did. In fact, what many of them believe and practice by tradition, is actually doing the DIRECT OPPOSITE of what Messiah said and did.

Many Christians believe that it's okay to do the opposite of what Messiah did, because they firmly believe that doing the OPPOSITE of what Yahweh Commanded is now supposedly what it means to be "Under Grace."

But we just read that KNOWING Yahweh is KEEPING His Commandments. We just read that knowing Messiah is KEEPING His Commandments. We just read that the person who claims to KNOW Him, and does not keep the commandments is a LIAR.

So modern-day Christianity has created a major theological dilemma. Because according to THEM; the way they MISINTERPRET GRACE, and the biblical definition of love ends up, being the DIRECT OPPOSITE of EACH OTHER.

According to the Bible, the way that we SHOW that we know and that we LOVE GOD, is to learn and to KEEP His Commandments and to learn to WALK AS Jesus walked before God. That's what it means to walk in the love of God, according to Scripture.

But the same Christian who claims to believe the same Scripture will also say that the grace of God means not having to learn and keep God's Commandments anymore.

So according to traditional Christian logic, that would mean that you walk in God's LOVE by KEEPING the Commandments of God, but you supposedly walk in the same God's GRACE, by NOT OBEYING the Commandments.

Since OBEYING Yahweh's Commandments is what defines walking in God's love, then how can BREAKING the Commandments of God be a sign that you are walking in God's Grace?! Think about It! Can Walking in God's Love Truly Be the Opposite of Walking in God's Grace? Can walking in God's love and walking in God's grace really be the total OPPOSITE of one another?!

Modern Christianity has created a theological paradox that they refuse to confront and refuse to acknowledge. They have created a man-made religious system where they claim to believe Scripture, but they no longer truly USE Scripture to define their key terms. They have created a man-made religious system that has abandoned more than 76% of the Scriptures, and so it is no longer true to God’s Word.

Equally important. Modern Christianity has adopted a doctrinal system that is not even true to itself and its own standards; because it puts believers in a position where they claim to believe the Scriptures, but at the same time, they essentially teach that to walk in God’s Love I must learn and KEEP Yahweh’s Commandments as Messiah did, but walking in the same Creator’s Grace, supposedly now means that I can and should do the OPPOSITE of what Yahweh Commanded, and live in the OPPOSITE way from how Messiah lived.

So they created a religious system where in order to walk in God’s love I take the right fork of the road, and to walk in the SAME Creator’s Grace, I must take the left fork of the road and walk in the opposite way of life. So they created a situation where the love of God and the grace of God are the direct opposite of each other. God does not deny or contradict Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). 

Walking in God's Love, and walking in God's grace CANNOT correctly be the OPPOSITE of ONE ANOTHER. Modern Christendom has obviously taken a WRONG turn somewhere.

To Walk in the GRACE of God turn LEFT.

To walk in the LOVE of God, turn RIGHT. Can Walking in the LOVE of God and walking in the GRACE of the SAME God, truly be the OPPOSITE of EACH OTHER?!!

Something is obviously NOT right. For the love of God, PLEASE repent.

As it is written:

Thus says the Lord: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16, NKJV)

Brother Michel Lankford