Originating from the famous writer Clive Staples “CS” Lewis From "The Chronicles of Narnia," the following phrase was uttered several decades ago, but it has never seemed as relevant as it is now:
“God is love, but love is not God, and it will become a demon the moment it becomes a god.“
Can anyone question the following statement by the apostle John?
Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(1 John 4:8 – KJA)
Unlike the so-called "gods" of other religions—who demand human merit to obtain their favor—the Christian God knows so well that human beings are incapable of obtaining merit before their Creator through their own strength that He Himself, in the person of His Son, became incarnate to acquire such merits and share them with those who trust in His person and work, giving them Eternal Salvation and Kingdom.
However, the meaning of "love" has lost almost all significance in today's world.
In the name of supposed "love," many people, even those who call themselves Christians, are, as the saying goes, "throwing the baby out with the bathwater": "love" has increasingly become synonymous with "permissiveness," "never say no," or other similar things.
In the name of this alleged "love," tolerance of sin, a lack of principles of conduct, correction, and repentance have been preached... in short, a series of harsher attitudes—even if fully justified and necessary on the part of those who desire the correction of their loved one—that have been associated with hatred and intolerance.
Is this really "love"?
For some people, it might seem that way, but the truth is that this is a false, negligent "love," not the love of God.
Just like in C.S. Lewis's quote, here is demonic love, taking the place of God in the lives of many people: contradicting, admonishing, reprimanding, even in a just and correct way and aiming for good, has become "hate speech"!
God's love is not like that in any way.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, for example, makes a profound comparison between the relationship of a father and his son, and the relationship that God has with those whom He loves:
“"My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.".
(Hebrews 12:5b-8 – KJA)
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children.
Now, what son doesn't go through correction from his father?
But if you are without guidance, in which all have become partakers, then you are not legitimate children, but illegitimate children.
A human father, upon seeing, for example, his son engaging in shady activities such as crime, what will he do if he truly loves him?
Will you allow it to follow this path, without interfering or correcting it, because that is "love"?
Absolutely not!
A human father knows that the end of this journey could cost his son his freedom or even his life, and he will do everything he can to steer him away from this path, even if it means being harsh and applying severe punishments, because the goal is the best possible: to avoid the ultimate disaster that this will inevitably lead to.
Similarly, God corrects what is wrong in those He loves, and this can even be through severe reprimand or great pain, hence the term "scourge" used in the passage.
We can find several examples of this in the Scriptures, but one deserves special mention:
THORNS
And to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me.
(2ⁿᵈ Corinthians 12:7-10 – KJA)
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.
However, He declared to me:
“"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.".
Therefore, I will gladly boast about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
For this reason, for Christ’s sake, I can be happy in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.
For when I am weak, then I am strong!
Paul doesn't specify what this "thorn in the flesh" was, so many speculations have been made: some suggest it could be adversaries who disturbed his ministry, others that he might have suffered from epilepsy, but the following passage may be a likely indication that Paul actually had some kind of vision problem:
So, where is your joy now?
(Galatians 4:15 – KJA)
For I myself am a witness that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and offered them to me.
It is quite likely that God inspired Paul not to state what the "thorn" was so that each Christian could identify with the situation he was experiencing, because it is something that every sincere Christian knows: the cross that they are obliged to bear, which may be different from case to case, but which spares no Christian.
However, what needs to be highlighted is that Paul, in recounting the event, admits that there was a reason why God allowed it to happen: the apostle was at risk of becoming arrogant, especially because of the revelations he had received.
One of them, as is clear in the previous verses (from 1 to 6), was having seen paradise itself while still alive — although he says that he “knew a man who had been taken to paradise”, he ends up, in a way, admitting that it was himself when he states that he ran the risk of becoming arrogant with the greatness of the revelations.
Thus, God not only made Paul carry this "thorn," but also told him to trust in His grace, not that He would remove it from him.
As we can see, God already knew beforehand that Paul would become arrogant, and He had already disciplined him preventively, keeping him humble and aware that all the work he accomplished came from his Lord, not from himself.
This is true love, the love of God that treats his children exactly as the children they are, correcting and setting their course so that they do not stray from the path of salvation.
Unlike the world, which seeks immediate pleasure and does not accept correction or discipline, claiming—as is often seen today—that "any 'no' means hatred" or that any reprimand is intolerance, the Christian has in God a father who loves him, who is not negligent and, on the contrary, wants him with Him for all eternity:
Every correction, in fact, at the moment it occurs, does not seem to be a cause for contentment, but for frustration;
(Hebrews 12:11 – KJA)
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for all those who have been disciplined by it.
Thus, like the apostle Paul, a Christian can view correction from God as something that may cause sadness at the moment it is applied, but which will serve to keep him close to God, preventing his sinful nature and the temptations of the world and the devil from depriving him of the Father's presence and ultimately casting him into eternal damnation.
Such corrections and disciplines, however, will only occur while the Christian is on Earth: in the New Jerusalem they will never be necessary again, for we will be totally perfected, molded into the perfect image of God and with nothing in which it is necessary to correct ourselves.
Until then, may every Christian understand that God corrects us out of love, never out of sadism.
And everything will bear its eternal fruit, with the perfect likeness of the Father in eternity.
In the Bonds of Calvary
ORIGINAL TITLE: Love is not God.
There was a point in my adolescence when I understood the absurdity of turning the expression "making love" into a synonym for the act of sex, but at that time they were only constructing this obscene and perverse "monster" manifested by today's progressivism, which, in reality, is just another one. indication That the end times are rapidly unfolding, and before the Lord returns like a thief in the night, the prophesied reign of the Antichrist must be consolidated not only in Brazil, but throughout the world!
In the 2023 phase of "The Worst Gospel," I decided to use new formats in the hope of helping to increase the reach of content related to the Scriptures—stories, videos, shorter texts, guest authors…—and this publication, which I took the liberty of revising and illustrating, is part of that project.
Thank you for reading this far.
I still need all the help I can get: comments, shares, and reactions help spread this content, which was entirely produced with the intention of contributing to the edification of the Body of Christ in the world.
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