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Number SI/008 Revised June 2011

What is this thing called “Love”?The cross is a place of self-sacrifice, a place of humiliation, pain and suffering. It is a place of loneliness where life is laid down for the sake of others. Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, went to this place of extreme suffering and perished there – so that we might live. If we are to live, we have to follow Him there – unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it cannot produce life. Out of the cross then comes life. Deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Jesus and be blessed as His disciple.

As much as it is a place of humiliation and death, the cross is also a place of supreme victory. Victory obtained and given to mankind by the Lord Jesus Christ. Victory over sin and death. Victory over self, poverty, sickness and disease. But as you deny yourself and go to your cross and die to self, life comes both to you in Christ Jesus and to others through you as well – because then, and only then, can the Lord anoint and use you to your full potential in Him. This is how we love one another as He loves us. As we deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him, He carries us through into life everlasting and our joy is made full. Many believers recognise the need to go to the cross, but few realise the part where Jesus called on His followers to deny themselves. That’s step one and the hard part. Submitting to the cross sounds so romantic today and some so-called Christians in South America even go so far as to have themselves crucified with all the bells and whistles at Easter-time. But as believers we really need to recognise the reality of it: DENY YOURSELF, take up YOUR cross, and FOLLOW Christ Jesus. To have even the vaguest idea of what that means we need to examine His life among us and to hear His words. The things He said He meant.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” [Joh 13:35 KJV] Jesus Himself gave the qualifications required to become His disciple. Love is one of them. But it is a very particular kind of love. It is most definitely not the emotion you will find touted as “love” in most churches. We are all familiar with that particular version of “love”. We hear it sung in sentimental songs that have such delicious appeal to the flesh and have us all holding hands and swaying gently and sweetly to the lilting music. “I see Jesus in your eyes and it makes me love you…” or “By this shall all men know…..” And the ladies look moved and the men look soulful. “Come now everybody, just turn to the person next to you/behind you and say, ‘I love you with the love of the Lord,’” – or give them a hug, or something similar. We are swept up with a wave of warm emotion that makes us feel good. “There is so much love in our church!” And we snuggle into our seats with much self-satisfaction and happy self-congratulation.

What happens if the unknown person you hugged with such a show of warmth should phone you tomorrow – or worse still, come to your office to see you, and expect you to show covenant love to them? What is covenant love? What is mine is yours, and what is yours is mine. What happens if they come looking for food, or clothes, or heaven forbid, money? Do you then get embarrassed and hope no one sees you or them together and mutter some excuse about not having anything right now – give me your number and I’ll phone you…?

Perhaps you do. Or perhaps you pass them off to the church, the home-cell leader, the nearest charity organisation… So much for the love you sang about in church.

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It must be obvious to most sincere believers that we are not experiencing the love that Jesus spoke about. He said we were to love one another… “Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. ” [Joh 13:34 MSG] “This is My commandment: that you love one another exactly as I have loved you. No one has shown stronger affection than to give up his own life for his friends. You are My friends if you keep on doing the things which I command you to do.” [Joh 15:12,13 AMP edited]

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.” [1Jn 4:7,8 KJV]

I don’t believe any true Christian has read those verses without either a twinge of guilt or a severe case of condemnation. Yet Jesus said that this love would be the fruit, the distinguishing mark of His followers. And trees and bushes make no effort at producing fruit because its a natural process! A well-tended fruit tree produces good fruit. Let Jesus be your personal gardener.

When we look at His words more clearly, we understand why this love is so lacking in the church. Not only in the church, but in the home fellowships and even in our circle of Christian friends and acquaintances.

The Lord Jesus Christ said that mutual love would mark out people as His. The key lies in the words, “my disciples”. Love will characterise the disciples, not the hangers-on. Sadly, but truly, churches are full of hangers-on, not disciples. There to be seen and socially acceptable - but don’t make any demands...So it is not surprising that there is little of the true love of Christ Jesus in evidence. Just a saccharine-sweet, watered-down mask that believers adjust for the required song and the appropriate part of the service. We will take a closer look at the effects and consequences of this “love” at a later stage.

The “love of the Lord”First of all, what is the “love of the Lord” that so many claim to love with? What is it really, that is, not what is it that they manifest.

“This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. ” [1Jn 3:16 MSG] What is this “living sacrificially” or “laying down” of life? It does not refer only to death. Laying down your life involves foregoing your “rights”, your interests, your time, your own legitimate needs and so on, for the benefit of your brother or sister – without grumbling, complaining, resentment or expectation of recognition or reward.

Jesus laid down His own life continually – foregoing rest, peace, privacy and even the right to mourn alone the death of John the Baptist. He laid down all expectation of appreciation, thanks, gratitude, reward, recognition and honour. He in fact received exactly the opposite throughout His life. People followed Him for what they could get out of Him for their own personal benefit and gain, and never did He round on them for it. He knew what was in their hearts, [Joh 2:24,25] yet He continued to heal, teach, deliver and provide for them.

This laying down of life culminated in His death on the cross. Passers-by mocked Him while He was on the cross, calling on Him to save Himself if He was the Messiah - and come down from His place of humiliation. He stayed there for our benefit. In the same way, the Lord expects us to be ready to serve Him in life and death. Sacrifice is something we are to be prepared for on a daily basis : “I die daily, says Paul - “... my life is one long death.” [1Co 15:31b BBE] Jesus told us that if we were not ready to pick up our crosses and walk in the same path He did, we could not be His disciples. We are told to crucify the flesh. This is laying down our life, our wants, desires, needs, rights and privileges. It is also way beyond what most Christians are prepared to countenance. They will follow the Lord Jesus until such time as heavy demands are made on them. Then they are full of excuses. They don’t have time, or ability, or money. Family circumstances or business or other pressing engagements are more important. They resist change in themselves, their lifestyles, their way of thinking, speaking and behaving. Yet they say they “love you with the love of the Lord!” The Body of Christ is being short-changed!

Jesus said His disciples would be known for their love. That this love is lacking in our midst is obvious to all. It appears then that we are not being taught to be disciples, since these are the people who will manifest this love. Who or what are disciples?

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Continuing as a disciple“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, ‘If ye continue in my Word, then are ye my disciples indeed.’” [Joh 8:31 KJV]

These words immediately eliminate a large proportion of the members of any church from discipleship. If we are honest, we have to admit that few believers are prepared to follow Jesus in all He had to say and to require. Isaiah prophesied what the Word and the doctrine of Christ would do: “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little. For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,’ And, ‘This is the refreshing’; Yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was to them, Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little, That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.” [Isa 28:9-13 NKJV] This is a message for those who refuse to hear, those who should know better. The Lord said He would find a way to speak to His people and His Word would either change them - or condemn them. We need to open up ourselves to HEAR the Word and to let it change us. For that to happen, we have to submit to the cross.

We don’t like to be broken. We don’t like discomfort and inconvenience. More especially, we don’t like to crucify the flesh. Yet when we continue in the Word, this is what will inevitably happen. “‘Is not My Word like a fire?’ says the LORD, ‘And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ‘“ [Jer 23:29 NKJV]

If we want to follow on to know the Lord, then He starts to reach deep into us to change us, to break us where need be and to remould us.

Dividing between life and deathThe Word is alive and it divides between spirit and soul. [Heb 4:12,13] It discerns the true motive and impulses behind the thoughts, the emotions and deeds. It will bring you to the point where you realise that God knows everything, that you cannot deceive, con, persuade or convince Him about anything. Then when you start being totally sincere and open with Him and yourself, His Word will start to do a pruning and purging that can at times be extremely painful and can demand great sacrifice - but great reward comes with it too.

Few of the millions of followers of Jesus are prepared to submit to this process. When the going gets difficult and the much-touted blessings of Abraham are slow to come, the grumbling and complaining get louder. We get upset with God. After all, “we are doing everything right” - making the right confessions, praying for the required daily hour, going to church, to homecell, to the various courses or even Bible college, going to the ladies’ meetings, helping out with street ministry maybe, even getting up early to go to early-morning intercession, we belong to the businessmen’s fellowship and so on and so on. But somehow it doesn’t seem as if God is too impressed. At any rate, He doesn’t seem to be paying too much attention, and He certainly isn’t answering prayers, and the promised prosperity and health seem an awfully long time in manifesting and we wonder if this stuff is true anyway…

We come to church in increasing desperation, with the demand for answers, exhortation, breakthroughs, a prophecy, a word – something – getting stronger and stronger. And nothing happens. We go as we came – just more despondent. This is the point where many give up. Either they turn on God and backslide, or they give up inside – and keep coming to church, but more as a requirement than as a need.

And they are not entirely to blame. Because frequently the church leadership is not giving them the full counsel of the Word. “I never sent these prophets, but they ran anyway. I never spoke to them, but they preached anyway. If they’d have bothered to sit down and meet with me, they’d have preached my Message to my people. They’d have gotten them back on the right track, gotten them out of their evil ruts.” [Jer 23:21-22 MSG]

Perhaps the greater part of today’s church leadership is speaking the pleasant words that will draw the crowds – words of prosperity, of forgiveness without true repentance, of an “easy” salvation, of a faith message that places the accent on self and material things, of a life made more comfortable by the

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blessings of God. Most of these messages have a limited place and time, but they must be placed in a proper relationship to the rest of the Word of God. Messages about prosperity and all the blessings that the abundant life that Christ gained for us by His sacrifice should not be preached to the total exclusion of the Lord’s requirement to die to self, to crucify the flesh, to lay aside all to follow Him - to be prepared and willing to be persecuted and suffer the loss of all things.

They should not be preached without the message of true holiness, relationship with God and obedience to God, because then they lead believers into mere lip service, which God abhors. The Lord hates false balances – the Word says they are an abomination to Him. [Pro 11:1] When a truth is preached as a doctrine at the expense of another truth, and when certain aspects of the Word are overemphasised to the prejudice of others, the balance is false, and God is no longer in it.

In truth, it is precisely because believers lay down everything for a life in Christ Jesus, that the blessings of the covenant of grace come upon them. Its a four-step process, undertaken because He loves you and you love Him: deny yourself, take up your cross, follow Him and finally, receive the blessings of grace - in that order. That’s what Christ’s love is about.

Love correctsThe Word says that the Lord corrects whom He loves, as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. [Pro 3:12; Heb 12:6] If I am being coached as a tennis player, my trainer will correct the wrong movements I make, the wrong steps, the wrong reactions – in order to improve my play, to get me to the place where I can win my matches, so that I can become a champion. Why should we then not want to accept the fact that God, as our Father, loves us infinitely more than any coach can love the athlete he is training and wants to correct us so that we can achieve what He is calling us to do? We are warned not to get weary of His correction, because he loves us.

But it seems this is a kind of love we are not prepared to accept. Yet it is God’s love. The Lord’s love. Certainly not much like the “love you with the love of the Lord” type love we get foisted on us in so many churches with the sweet smiles and the sentimental hugs. The Holy Spirit warns us, “So don’t feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either. It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects. God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out. He’s treating you as dear children. This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children. Only irresponsible parents leave children to fend for themselves. Would you prefer an irresponsible God?” [Heb 12:5-8 MSG] [see also Rev 3:19]

This is tough love and it often seems harsh. It is a difficult and unpleasant concept of love and sometimes hard for our minds to receive. So we do not continue in the Word. We don’t feel “led” to listen to this kind of message. It does not pander to the flesh and it does not fill our itching ears. It requires that we change. And we don’t want to. We say that such messages “only preach condemnation” and so we close our ears.

So we do not follow on to know the Lord. We do not continue in His Word – so we are not His disciples. We can piously and religiously quote the word of Paul in Philippians, probably when we are praying those great prayers that others can benefit from, “Oh Lord, that we may know you and the power of your resurrection…” but that is as far as we are prepared to go. The tragedy is, that without the rest of that prayer, the first half is unfinished and loses meaning. Paul said, “that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” [Php 3:10 KJV] For most of us, “this is a hard saying, who can understand it? … and many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” [Joh 6:60,66 NKJV]

They might well continue to go to church, raise their hands, sing, pray, go to meetings, fellowships etc. Yet there is an emptiness which they try to drown with their happy version of love, their positive confessions and their activity for the Lord. But they stop growing. They slowly start to lose the joy, the excitement, the enthusiasm and the peace of knowing the Lord and of fellowshipping openly and intimately with Him through the Holy Spirit. Their “outside” daily lives take increasing precedence. Eventually their faith or their religion becomes just another aspect of the rest of their life, just another part of it, to be observed or neglected as circumstances and emotions (generally guilt) dictate. They have

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not continued in His Word. They are not His disciples. Since they are not His disciples, there is no way than can either experience or reflect His love.

Continuing in the Word is accepting and often experiencing all that the Holy Spirit leads us to find there. The Lord will test those who profess to love Jesus Christ and to want to follow Him wherever He goes and do whatever He says to do.

His tests and trials sometimes take forms which many so-called “Word” or charismatic churches have tried to argue away with many scriptures which in our desire to believe we have accepted wholesale. Unfortunately, they do not reflect the whole truth of God’s counsel.

Seek first the kingdom of God“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” [Hos 6:1-3 TNIV] Startling words. Disturbing thoughts – that the Lord has torn us to pieces and that He has injured us, only to make us whole again... Why are they not preached?

Ah, because “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” [James 1:17 KJV] True, but not everything we consider good and perfect is so considered by God. In the same way, not everything He considers good and perfect for us is what we would want. We don’t know what is halfway down the road we are walking. He does.

In order to stop us from destroying ourselves, He will sometimes cause all kinds of things to come across our paths which we do not consider good and perfect. But later on, if we have followed on to know Him, if we have continued to trust Him and called on His wisdom, we see the traps in which the devil would have demolished us, if God had not put that “awful thing” in the way.

The Lord knows what kind of dangers and trials wait for us down the road – perhaps on the brink of fulfilling our calling. If we have not been trained and prepared to endure hardship, to trust God no matter what the circumstances, to hold fast to His Word and to stand, then we have little hope of victory when the night is blackest.

God very frequently prepares us by trials, tests and persecutions so that when the final crunch comes, we can sail through in the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He Himself prepares our way, just as He prepared the way of the Israelites through the desert. He tested and proved them – and He has not changed, He does the same with us. He led them through a wilderness, where there wasn’t even water or decent food, and yet they had been promised all those wonderful things in the land flowing with milk and honey. He does the same with us. Before we can be entrusted with those promises we must first be tried and proved. We have to learn not to worship false gods, murmur and complain, kick against God-appointed authority, grumble when the promises are long in coming and so on. We have to endure hardship. We have to learn to know and trust God.

So why do we rarely hear words such as these preached? The New Testament is full of such admonitions. Paul’s life is a living testimony of persecution and hardship. Peter warned of persecution, James cautioned us to have patience in temptation/trial. In the letter to the Hebrews we are admonished not to give up. In Thessalonians we read of persecution and tribulation and of the faithfulness of God in those things, in Colossians we are told to lay aside all the deeds of the flesh and live only for Christ – ie not to live for all our selfish desires and material wants. In Philippians we are told that the things of this earth are so much dung. In every book in short, we are warned of the deceitfulness of the world and the need to turn our backs on it and follow on with Jesus, striving against sin, resisting temptation, trusting God in trials, knowing that the victory, , is assured.

Jesus Christ preached this same tough message then, but if He were to preach it in most pulpits today He would probably be branded as a man of no faith, who speaks negatively. When He tried to show people that they should be following Him for who He is, not for what they could get out of Him, most of His congregation left Him! [John 6:60,66] That has to go down as a singular success in ministry. Today’s

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churches would scorn Him as a failure! Yet He was speaking the truth - in love.

Submitting to the sword“I am the true vine and My Father is the gardener. He takes away every branch in Me which has no fruit, and every branch which has fruit He makes clean, so that it may have more fruit. [Joh 15:1-2 BBE] Jesus Christ himself said that as we started to bear fruit, we would be purged to bring forth more fruit. So why is there so much opposition to preaching about the purging and the cleansing, the pruning and the breaking which continuing in the Word brings? Is it because it does not attract the crowds? Is it because it does not encourage the excited masses to dig into their pockets?

In that same passage in John, Jesus warned that those who did not bear fruit would be cast aside and burned. Heavy words… perhaps it is time we started taking note of such admonition, because the Word of God, both Old and New Testaments, is full of them. In Hebrews [6:7-8] it even warns that earth that receives the rain and yet continues to bring forth nothing but briars and thorns is rejected and destined to be burnt. We know from parables of Jesus that earth and soil are similes for the human heart.

Remember the parable of the sower? The seed that was sown in stony ground, Jesus said, was representative of people who received the word with joy, but when persecution and affliction arose for the Word’s sake, they turned away. In other words, they were not prepared to stand on and believe that word and let it do its work in them.

Then there were those amid the briars and thorns. Here there was growth, they were doing the word, it had taken root and they were developing in it. But then what happened, the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches and lust of other things entering in choked the word. This makes it clear that they had started tasting the blessings promised by the word, but those blessings had become more important to them than the word – they became idols: riches, lusts and worldly things. They took their eyes off the purity of the word and stopped allowing it work in them.

The Old Testament is glaring and vociferous proof of what happens to those who refuse to act on the Word of God, who complain and grumble, who turn after other gods. And “other gods” could be the evening TV news, if that is stopping you from spending the time with the Lord which brings true life and which He desires of us. He made it plain – no other gods before Him. Whether that is your work, your spouse, your children, your church work, your recreation, your study, your hobby, your friends, your club – and so on – delete that which is not applicable and fill in your own preference if you like – it is the same challenge to all of us. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him…” [Job 13:15 KJV] How many of us can truly say that? Emotionally, religiously, we probably could. But when we are sitting in the midst of circumstances that have caused nothing but destruction and despair, can we then say it, and mean it? Yet that is part of continuing in His Word. Yet Jesus does not admonish us to love each other as He loved us as a requirement as in Law. He set us free from the requirements of the Law. He is telling us that this is what is required if we want to abide in Him and receive the blessings of His Kingdom.

“Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire?” [Isa 33:14b KJV] Yet that is what God requires … Our God is a consuming fire. [Deut 4:24 & Heb 12:29 KJV] His Word burns, it purges, it refines. “But who can live through the day when He comes? Who will be left standing when He appears? He will be like a fire that makes things pure. He will be like soap that makes things clean. He will act like one who makes silver pure. And He will purify the Levites, just as gold and silver are purified with fire. Then the LORD’s people will bring proper offerings.” [Mal 3:2c-3 NIrV]

When we start to experience the burning and breaking power of God’s Word on and in us, how many of us really continue in it? How many of us are prepared to let the Word and the Holy Spirit reach into every area of life – even those very private ones, that belong to us? Are we really prepared to surrender even those things that we treasure – perhaps the morning jog, or the late Friday after work with the boys, or the Wednesday afternoon with the girls – whatever it is that is our special treat? Are we even prepared to ask the Lord to make us willing to ask Him to help us sacrifice those “little” idols”. If they are more important to us than what the Lord wants for us, they are idols – big or small, an idol is an idol and God cannot use you while you cherish it.

Your idol might be one of your own character traits. One you think distinguishes you, makes you

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interesting or unique. You think that it is a distinctive part of your personality and when the Lord starts impressing you to change, you refuse. Maybe your idol is a pet doctrine. Then you find something in the Word that contradicts it. Are you ready to search the Word with an open heart to find the truth? Or do you hang on to your beliefs with stubborn determination and try all kinds of other avenues to justify what you want to think and believe? If you want to be the disciple of Jesus Christ you have to continue in His Word.

And He will lead you on in that Word. Just when you think you have found the ultimate revelation in some scripture, He will suddenly reveal a whole new perspective in that same scripture which you thought you really knew. Never think that you have the full truth on any doctrine or teaching or revelation – there is always far more than you think. “If any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.” [1Co 8:2 KJV]

To be a real disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to continue in His Word. Only then will you know the truth – and only then will that truth set you free – because then you are prepared to accept the cutting sword of truth that will sever the soulish things from the spirit. Then you are prepared to crucify the flesh and truly die to self so that you can live in Christ and He can live in you.

Unless you are continuing in His Word, the truth will not set you free, it will put you in bondage. Either you will try to avoid looking at the truth of the Word which you don’t want to apply in your own life and thus become guilty of hypocrisy, deception and lies, or you will get into condemnation and guilt. Either way, you live an unbalanced Christian life which will hamper your growth and your relationship with the Lord.

Take up your cross“If anyone comes to Me and does not have a relatively indifferent attitude toward his own father and mother in comparison with that toward God, and likewise even his wife and children and brothers and sisters - yes and even his own life also - he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple. [Luk 14:26-27 AMP edited] Jesus’ insistence that His disciples take up their crosses and follow Him, no matter what the cost, amounts to a major qualification for discipleship. These statements recur in Matthew 16:24,25; Mark 8:34 and Luke 14:33. In Luke 9:62b we read, “... No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back to the things behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” [AMP]

To be a disciple of Jesus, you have to be prepared to lay everything down – everything. We return again to the words of Paul in the letter to the Philippians – “But those things which were profit to me, I gave up for Christ. Yes truly, and I am ready to give up all things for the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, which is more than all: for whom I have undergone the loss of all things, and to me they are less than nothing, so that I may have Christ as my reward.” [Php 3:7,8 BBE]

Many Christians are prepared to lose a certain number of things – generally those that are not too important. But what happens when the Lord requires more? Perhaps your set of heavy metal music CDs? Your social status? Your business? Your career? Your relationship with your children? How far will you go for Him? Really?

Well-meaning friends, believers, family and even church leaders will tell you how deceived you are, that you are in error, unbalanced etc…. even that God could not possibly expect such sacrifices of you. Friend, read the Word, study it, pray about it, spend much time in prayer with the Holy Spirit and in praising, loving and worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where the truth and the way lie. Not in the words or counsels of flesh and blood.

Jesus did not mince words. He did not say one thing to mean another. If you are not prepared to sacrifice everything for Him you cannot be His disciple. He even spoke a parable about it to make sure that even the simplest and most uneducated would be able to understand. [Lk 14:16-24] When the Lord called “many” to his great supper, they refused. One said he wanted to see his ground (material possessions, property), another that he had to test his oxen (business, work) another that he had just married (wife, or family obligations). Jesus was very blunt, “... none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” They were not prepared to give up those things to be with their Lord, so He will

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not be prepared to recognise them at His table. Many will call Him, Lord, Lord, but to how many will He have to say, “I know you not”?

Unless we can honestly say that we have given up everything to follow Jesus, we can by no means call ourselves His disciples. So we cannot pretend to know the love He speaks of that will characterise His disciples. It is the disciples, not the hangers-on or the convenience Christians, the Day Trippers, who will know and experience this love.

Laying down your life“The disciple is not above his master nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” [Mat 10:24,25 KJV] Jesus prepared His true disciples for the kind of life of sacrifice, dying to self, laying down of life and persecution and mistreatment they would have if they followed Him. The verses preceding these statements of His speak of even close friends and family turning on disciples.

The disciple has to be prepared to do and be everything that Jesus Christ did and was on earth. He washed the feet of His disciples – He expects the same behaviour from them. He endured unprecedented persecution for doing good, for healing and delivering people, for proclaiming the truth. He warned that His true disciples would experience the same things. “Keep in mind the words I said to you, a servant is not greater than his lord. If they were cruel to Me, they will be cruel to you; if they kept My words, they will keep yours.” [Joh 15:20 BBE] If the servant is not greater than his lord, he should not expect any special treatment. Jesus did not have bodyguards. He did not live in the most exclusive areas in costly mansions or travel around in luxury. One did not have to make appointments to see Him. He was readily accessible to all who needed Him. He laid His own comfort and privacy down to meet the needs of others. Even when He retired to a private place after John the Baptist’s execution, He left His own sorrow to minister to the crowds who had followed Him, because He had compassion for them.

He did not minister for the glory, fame and wealth that would accrue to Him. He did not exalt Himself at any time. He claimed that He did only what the Father required of Him and spoke only the words He heard spoken by God. He did not try to impress, gain recognition or make Himself a name. When He was persecuted He did not lash back or try to defend or vindicate Himself. He never compromised in order to gain some kind of advantage or benefit.

At the same time, He did not mince His words when it was needful to correct people. He called Peter “Satan” at one stage, but it was to snap him back into reality. He told a Syro-Phoenican woman she was a “dog” but it was to make her realise that He knew who and what she was and loved her as she was, not as the Jew she was initially pretending to be. Had He given her her request when she was in effect lying about her nationality, He would have been condoning falseness and hypocrisy.

Sometimes the Lord will lead us to correct others, confront them and too often, we shy away from that. The excuse is that we “don’t want to hurt them” or we are afraid that they will feel condemned. That is utter nonsense. Generally the real truth is that we are scared they will turn on us. We are afraid that others will criticise us and think less of us. Yet the word says, “Speaking the truth in love” we should “grow up into Him”. [Eph4:15] The first book of John [1Jn 3:18] admonishes us not to love in “word” or in “tongue” but in “deed, and in truth”.

Proverbs is even blunter. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” [Pro 27:6 KJV] Sometimes you might be required to speak the truth to a friend that will hurt them. But they will bring life if the Lord has told you to do it. Yes, they might turn on you. You might initially lose that friendship. You might even be persecuted for speaking. Do you love that friend enough to lay down YOUR life and YOUR interests, knowing that YOU will be hurt? That is the love the Lord requires of us.

Jesus did not live for His own comfort and acclaim. He gave His life to serve others – to the point of death. He was totally obedient to His Father’s will – and never complained in the process of performing that will. We still have a long way to go.

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Bearing righteous fruit“When you produce a lot of fruit, My Father is honoured and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.” [Joh 15:8 AMP edited] This verse can actually not be quoted without reference to the preceding one: “If you live in Me - abide vitally united to Me - and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.” [AMP] This is what disciples have become – so much part of Jesus Christ that they think His thoughts, speak His words and ask for His will to be done. As a result, it shall be done – just as every word which Jesus spoke during His ministry was fulfilled. This is the fruit which they bear – the same the Master bore when He was on earth.

It is fruit which glorifies God, fruit which remains [vs 16], fruit of healing, of deliverance, of salvation, of redemption, of righteousness, mercy, justice, judgement, compassion, prayer – look at the ministry of Jesus - it is all the fruit which He bore.

Fruit bears seed. So it is obvious that the fruit does not just remain there for the benefit of the one or two who eat it. The seed must be sown and in turn bring forth fruit, just as Jesus Himself sowed into His disciples so that they could bring forth fruit.

Yet how many take those words of Jesus as a blank cheque to make all kinds of prayers purely to fulfill their lusts, desires, ambitions and carnal “needs”? They totally neglect the “abide in me and my words in you” – or they take that as referring purely to a select choice of favourable scriptures that promise blessing and prosperity which they keep in themselves and expect to see confirmed.

Agape“A new commandment I give unto you. That ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” [John 13:34 KJV] Only if you are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ can you love in this way.

Agape - the God-kind of love - is tough love. It is a love that does not draw back from rebuke. It does not have recourse to flattery or compromise. It gives without conditions and without requiring any return. It is totally selfless. It often acts knowing that in return it will receive only abuse, accusation, persecution and misunderstanding. It will act despite the price it has to pay. It is NOT an emotion. “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye (agapeo) one to another. [Joh 13:35 KJV]

This love is possible only if you are a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the kind of love that true followers of His actually experience and live in. That is why you can feel such an instant one-ness with another disciple whom you have only just met. It is only when the Lord Jesus Christ is supreme, the only God, the one Lord in your life, to whom you have committed everything and for whom you have forsaken everything, that you can ever experience this kind of love – for other like-disciples and for those to whom you minister. It is not an emotion that comes and goes depending on circumstances and your feelings.

There are three Greek words which are translated “love” in English: agapeo, phileo and eros. Agapeo is the love which Jesus speaks of - self sacrificial love; covenant love or the God-kind. The love that “lovingkindness” speaks of. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for lovingkindness is “chesed”, whereas in the New testament, the Greek word used is “charis”, which speaks also of grace. Phileo is affection as between friends. And eros has to do with a sexual relationship. In a marriage between man and wife, all three should be present.

That is why we do not experience this love in many churches today. Most of the believers are not disciples. We try to whip up something we have come to accept as love – and perhaps manage it for a while – but it is shallow and doesn’t last. That is why the “love” we experience in emotion-charged gatherings is almost always shallow, sugary sweet, not entirely genuine. This kind of love is a fleshly imitation and as such it cannot produce life. (And there is probably no Greek word for it!) We know it is false and our spirits long for the truth. Jesus said it was only the spirit that gives life, the flesh profits nothing. [Joh 6:63] “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing...” [Rom 7:18 KJV] “So then they that are in the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption (death).” [Gal 6:8 KJV]

Can that be true? That the “love” we demonstrate or are exhorted to demonstrate in church services

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and fellowships is really bringing only corruption – death? The honest believer can only admit it is not the real thing. So what is it then, if not an act, a sham for appearance’s and emotion’s sake?

In John 17, Jesus spoke his high-priestly prayer for us. He prayed that we be one, “ “I do not pray only for them (the disciples with Him). I pray also for those who will believe in Me because of their message. Father, I pray that all of them will be one, just as You are in Me and I am in You. I want them also to be in Us. Then the world will believe that you have sent Me. I have given them the glory You gave Me. I did this so they would be one, just as We are One. I will be in them, just as You are in Me. I want them to be brought together perfectly as one. This will let the world know that You sent Me. It will also show the world that You have loved those you gave Me, just as You have loved Me. [Joh 17:20-23 NIrV]

Have you ever asked yourself how much the Father loved Jesus? Enough to send Him to the cross. He does the same with us. He expects us to be willing to go to the cross and loves us enough to put us in circumstances that will lead us there. Yet how many would consider this love? God knows that life and victory lie on the other side of the cross. He wants us to be crucified because He loves us. This is God’s love – not the sloppy sentiment whined out in so many churches today.

Feeding the spirit“Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work He started.” [Joh 4:34 MSG] In the gospel of John chapter 4 we read of Jesus’ experience with a Samaritan woman at a well. He was tired and hungry and His disciples went to the city to buy food – the King James version calls it “meat”. While they were away, He engaged this woman in conversation, asking her to draw water for Him. It is apparent from the questions she asked Him that she was someone concerned about God and the worship of God. She was surprised that this traveller, a Jew, would even speak to her let alone ask her to draw water for him. If knowing God was not a desire that was uppermost in her heart and mind, she would never have put the questions to Him that she did - expecting a sharp rebuke. When He told her about her domestic situation, she surmised that Jesus was a prophet and questioned Him about God and worship and told Him her people were waiting for the Messiah, who would change everything for them. Jesus revealed to her, a Samaritan and a Gentile, that she was speaking to the Messiah Himself. Jesus met this woman’s need. Not only did He minister to her, but through her testimony was later able to preach and teach the people in the city near the well. In ministering to the woman, Jesus was doing his Father’s will.

When His disciples returned with food and offered Him some, [vs 31] His reply baffled them. “I have food to eat you know nothing about.” Then at their confusion, He clarified. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” [vs 34 NKJV] This is one of the main ways in which our spirits are fed. When we do the Father’s will, we are feeding our spirits, we are receiving spiritual strength and sustenance, growing in character and growing up into Christ. “God is a spiritual Being and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality).” [vs 24] Obedience is a form of worship. That is one of the reasons why Jesus was able to fulfill the exhausting demands placed upon Him. In everything He did, He was being obedient, He was feeding his spirit in that obedience and growing in strength and anointing and grace as He did so. In demonstrating the character and nature of God, He was worshipping Him and His spirit was constantly being fed and strengthened as a result.

Evil spirits are fed in the same way. When you do their will, you feed demons and evil spirits around or in you. Consequently they grow in influence and power in your life. When you demonstrate their character and nature, you are feeding and strengthening them. The Lord God Himself told Satan “... you shall eat dust and what it contains all the days of your life…” [Gen 3:14 AMP] He told man “In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” [Gen 3:19 AMP] Do snakes eat dust? Of course not, so the reference is obviously not a literal one. Satan and his demons feed off our obedience to them. They feed off the acts of our flesh as we imitate and thus worship them.

They don’t require great and dramatic sins either. When you yield to your flesh rather than to the spirit, you are feeding the demons that have influenced your action. When you would rather get in a cutting word in the process of proving how right you are than find a way of peace and reconciliation, you

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are feeding demons. When you find justifications for not spending the time in prayer and reading the Word that you know you should, you are feeding demons. When you cheat, lie, deceive, are hypocritical, lose your temper, sulk, get resentful and refuse to forgive, you are nourishing and strengthening the demons that lead you to act in this way.

If you persist in this kind of behaviour, refusing to repent and change, resisting the promptings of the Holy Spirit, you eventually give those demons a permanent place in your life. What started off as a habit or a “character trait” becomes bondage and brings misery. Only deliverance will bring lasting relief.

The Word of GodThe Word is compared to a sword that “divides asunder soul and spirit” and is a “discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart”. [Heb :4:12] It will divide not only your soul from your spirit as such, but will cut off evil spirits from the influence they exert on your soul – that is your emotions, your thoughts, your motivations and your will. If you use the Word to bind and stop their effect on your mind and feelings, it will sever them from you and allow you to co-operate more freely with the Holy Spirit and obey the Lord rather than your flesh.

When we produce a counterfeit fleshly version of “love” we are doing nothing but produce nourishment for demons. Religious demons, demons of hypocrisy, lying, seducing and deceiving demons and a host of others. They relish these demonstrations of false affection. And of course they arouse the other accusing demons who attack the less susceptible to these emotions with cynicism, scorn, pride, sarcasm, judgement etc. Then there are the others who provide the guilt and condemnation in those who feel they cannot respond to this “love” and accuse and blame themselves for it. In short, it is a glory time for the enemy’s ranks.

The “love one another” doctrine as taught in so many churches is little more than an idol. The way that it is being taught and propagated makes it a false doctrine. Practising this fleshly version of love just for its own sake and to make you and others feel good is worthless, a work of the flesh which can produce only corruption. This version of love is one of the false doctrines which Jezebel promotes in the church. [Rev 2:20-23]

There are of course many among the congregation who genuinely experience the true love of Christ and are able to reflect it and whose sincerity is appreciated by those they approach. But unfortunately they are vastly in the minority.

The true love of Christ“Because this is the word which was given to you from the first, that we are to have love (agapeo) for one another; ... In this we see what (agape - the love of God) is, because He gave His life for us; and it is right for us to give our lives for (our) brothers.” [1Jn 3:11,16 BBE edited] Christian disciples know and experience the true love of Christ. I believe there are many who have had brief “tastes” of it and have thirsted for more without knowing fully how to grow up into it.

This self-sacrificial love however just flows from out of the true disciple. It is not something that can be “worked up” or that believers can be exhorted to demonstrate to one another. It is there, within you because the Lord Jesus Christ is there as Lord, and He is love. The true love of God flows out of your relationship with Him. In other words, He flows out of you. It really is not dependent on you, your mind, your reflexes – in short, your works. Without Him, you can do nothing. [Joh 15:5] It is He who works in you both to will and to do. [Php 2:13]

Among true disciples, this love is possible because Christ Jesus is really Lord, in every aspect of their lives. As a result, there is no room for envy, jealously fear of being surpassed or supplanted. There is no need to “perform” or impress others and there is no fear of the criticism and accusation that inevitably come.

It is not an impossible dream. Jesus Himself prayed for us that we should know this love: “I have declared unto them Thy name and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” [John 17:26 KJV] Jesus asked that that God-kind of love be in us. “He ever lives to make intercession for us.” [Hebrews 7:25 KJV]

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Through the Holy Spirit, Paul showed that God still desires that kind of love in us: “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge - that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” [Eph 3:17-19 NKJV] He goes on to, pray that all the glory should go to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us...” [vs 20] It is God Who does it; and knowing the love of Christ fills us with all the fullness of God Himself - isn’t that amazing?

Enter into His restWhen Jesus Christ is genuinely in control of your life you rest in Him. You know that He has given you a calling to fulfil and it makes no difference who else ministers in your area or with you in your ministry. It doesn’t matter if they seem to draw crowds and applause and you don’t. The important thing in your life is pleasing Jesus, obeying Him, fulfilling His will for your life. So it doesn’t matter what others do or don’t do.

You have such a close and intimate relationship with Jesus that it is simply not possible to be envious of another man’s ministry or success. Jesus is more important to you than things like that. You don’t have to try to imitate others or be better than them. You know Jesus, you know that He loves you and that you love Him, you serve and worship Him and flow in His anointing and His will, doing what He wants you to do – not what He is leading another man to do.

Jesus knew the ugly problem of competitiveness – self – would resurface among Christians as it had done among His disciples. That is why He spoke to Peter the way He did. [Joh 21:21,22] Peter saw John following him and Jesus and said, “Lord, what shall this man do?” Jesus said bluntly, “…what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” Leave the others to do what they believe the Lord is leading them to do. You do what Jesus tells you to do. And in the manner He tells you to do it.

When you are a true disciple of Jesus, you are not interested in fame, fortune and prosperity. You use them for His glory and to establish His kingdom when and if they come. You remain open, transparent, genuine and sincere. So it is easy to recognise others who are disciples. There is in fact almost instant recognition. There is a swift oneness, a closeness, an understanding and trust that do not exist among most believers. You are able to share in the Word and in prayer with a depth and openness that few believers know.

A HOLY communionDisciples are intensely aware of the power and importance of communion and the meaning of taking this covenant meal. You would consequently never speak ill of another disciple, or do him harm in any way. You also know the weight of the judgement that would come on you if you did. When your fellow disciple is in trouble, you are with him, in prayer and deed. And it is not something you have to work up – it is a response which comes spontaneously. You experience a love for your fellow disciple which it is very difficult to express in words, because it is not simply an emotion.

In fact, love is not an emotion. That is where Christians have misunderstood and misinterpreted it, in trying to whip it up somehow. Love is a person. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Self-sacrificial love flows out of your relationship with Him. HE flows out of you. It is not dependent on you, your mind, your reflexes or your works. Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.” When Jesus is in your life it is HE who does the work. God does not want our fleshly works. He hates the stench of sweat. Even His priests in the Old Testament were not allowed to wear wool so that they would not sweat!

We must realise that in order to know and experience this love, we have to abide in Him. We can do nothing unless we are abiding in Him. We cannot love one another in the flesh. That is why the false attempts at fleshly love so manifest among both Christians and people who call themselves Christians and are not, are nothing more than a stench. They are not displays of the love Jesus Christ commands. When Jesus Christ is the central aim and purpose of your living, when your relationship with Him is what guides and directs your life, then you will start to know this love that the Bible speaks of so much. Then you will have become His disciple.

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What is this thing called “Love”? A Sword publication

First published in September 1991 under ISBN 0-9583192-1-9. © Copyright Sword Productions July 1994. Revised Jun 2011.

ALL RIGHTS ON OUR PUBLICATIONS ARE RESERVED. Therefore, no part of our publications may be reproduced in whole or in part for sale without the express written consent of the publisher. Our mission is to spread the Word of God freely and request any users to be considerate and respect their source when reprinting or publishing material gathered from Sword Ministries publications. All our published works are provided after prayer and thorough reflection. We fervently believe that they have been given by the inspiration and direction of the Holy Spirit. We use the Word of God as written in the scriptures and quote from the Bible extensively. Though we consider the King James Version of the Bible to be the most accurate translation at our disposal, we continuously refer to other translations in order to make the teachings clear and enjoyable.

SWORD INFO SERIES. Sword Ministries, PO Box 653268, Benmore 2010; Tel.: +2711 784-4890/1; info@swordministries.co.za; www.swordministries.co.za; Please contact us at one of the above addresses or telephone numbers if you would like to know more about this.

Note: AMP = Amplified Version; BBE = Bible in Basic English; KJV = King James Version; MSG = The Message Bible; NKJV = New King James Version; NIrV = New International Reader’s Version; TNIV = Today’s New International Version

The new commandment“For this is the commandment that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” [1Jn 3:11,16 KJV] Is it “love” we are being given in emotionally charged services and sermons or is there more to the “agape” we are being taught? What did Jesus mean when He pointedly said that only disciples – not mere followers or hangers-on that is, could expect this love? We hope this pamphlet provided you with a simple and penetrating insight into true discipleship and its qualifications.