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What is love?

Published by Rob Skiba December 11, 2014 at 10:43 PM

Whenever post just about anything concerning keeping the commandments, I often hear people tell me that Jesus only gave two commandments for us to follow (as if He decided to trump His Father). Well, the first thing we must consider is this:

John 10:30 I and My Father are one.


So, right there we can toss out any notion of One outdoing the Other. They are one. What One said, the Other did as well. Perfect unity. So, we can’t claim, “Well YHWH said… yeah, but Yeshua said…” Think of it as THEY said. Now, with that said…

Mark 12:
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And 
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”


Got it? Love God. Love your neighbor. Ah, but what is love? We’ve all heard it in Christian weddings, right?

1 Corinthians 13:
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 
does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. 

I want to pause here for a second and address the accusation that some like to hurl whenever you confront their traditions (cough – like X-mess – cough) and they say stuff like, “We’re supposed to be loving not causing strife and division!” and things like that. Well, note that love does NOT rejoice in iniquity (sin, which is transgression of the law… you know like pagan activities masquerading as something Godly, for instance). Rather it rejoices in TRUTH! Thus, it is actually an act of love to expose iniquity in favor of promoting truth. And how are we to worship God? In the same way pagans worshiped their gods, while perpetuating lies? Or…

John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.

Back to love. The above Scripture (1 Cor. 13), written by Paul is a good example of loving in general. But what exactly does it mean to “love God?” John helps us out with these:

John 14:
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
19 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. 20 At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” 

Knocking the homerun Scripture out of the park, John later elaborates…

1 John 5:
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

To me, it cannot  be any clearer than that! Love is a verb requiring action. But, when I hear Christians say they “love God” while bashing anything to do with keeping the commandments, Biblically speaking I cannot see how they can possibly say they “love God.”

1 John 2:
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Again, pretty cut and dry if you ask me. Thus, based on 1 Cor. 13 and 1 John 2-5, are people REALLY “loving God” while participating in sin (transgression of the Law)? Don’t think so. Are any of us perfect? Nope. NONE of us are. Praise YHWH there is provision for our failings in the Grace given to us through Christ:

1 John 2:
1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. {defined as transgression of the Law in 1 John 3:4} And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.

Praise YHWH for the Advocate! But just because we have Grace and an Advocate who intercedes for us when we fail, that does not give us license to sin:

Romans 6:
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin {transgress the Law} that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! 

Paul says no. So, with this in mind, shouldn’t we now show our love for YHWH and our fellow man as Scripture actually defines it? After all, He is so  worthy of our love:

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

1 John 4:
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners {transgressors of His Law}, Christ died for us.

Indeed, we need to thank Him for loving us even when we were not loving Him! And now that we know He has demonstrated His love for us, should we not try to demonstrate our love for Him in return? I say yes.

Blessings,

– Rob Skiba

2 Responses to “What is love?”

  1. Beverly Wheeler says:

    Shalom Brother Rob, Thank you very much for reminding Us of YHWH’s Words of LOVE. I pray every day that YHWH Yahwshua will put His Spirit of LOVE in my heart and in the hearts of All His Returning True Yisrael-Lights Indeed. I ask YHWH to teach me to LOVE Him-YHWH as Much as He LOVES me. Without His Spirit of LOVE & TRUTH in my heart I cannot accomplish or finish the work of Proclaiming His Sabbath Light which YHWH has set before me to accomplish in this world of darkness & woe. I pray for you too brother Rob to hang in there with a Loving Spirit towards those (Isayah 8:20) who are gnashing their teeth at you & at others who LOVE YHWH’s Commandments – His Everlasting Covenant Of Love in Exodus Chapters 20-24. I Pray YHWH will put His Spirit of Love in their hearts too. “Him that Overcomes will I make a Pillar in the Temple of My Elohiym, and he shall go no more out: and I will Write upon him the Name (YHWH) of My Elohiym, and the Name of the City of My Elohiym, which is New Yahrusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My Elohiym: and I will write upon him my New Name-YHWH Yahwshua.” – Revelation 3:12. YHWH Bless you & Keep You. In YHWH Yahwshua’s LOVE, Sister Beverly

  2. Beverly Wheeler says:

    Shalom Brother Rob, Just want to comment on your timely “Ephraim Awaking” Page here; had not seen this website. It is beautiful how you connected Father YHWH’s LOVE for His Lost Son in Luke 15:11-32 to we Lost Sheep-Ephraim in Hosea 14:1-9. A picture is truly worth a thousand WORDS.

    “But his-Yoseph’s Bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made Strong by the Hands of the Mighty Elohiym of Yacob; (from thence-Yoseph-Ephraim is the Shepherd-Yahwshua, the Stone-Yahwshua* of Yisrael:)” – Genesis 49:24; *See Isayah 8:14; 28:16; 1 Peter 2:4-8.

    Yes, the Birthright Blessing went to Yoseph & Ephraim – Genesis chapter 48 & 1 Chronicles 5:1-2. Yes, YHWH Yahwshua is the SEED of Yoseph & Ephraim. That makes Yahwshua the Lamb of Yahweh our-we returning Lost Sheep, Our Blood Brother.

    This is just another Gem of Light-Truth in The Revelation of YHWH Yahwshua Ha Mashiyach; that needs to be Restored, so that we True Yisrael-Lights Indeed will Not be Deceived by the Anti-messiah whose seed is of Judah – See Acts 13:6. Yes, Research It! See Isayah 58:12-14; Yeremiyah 10:21,22,23,24,25.

    YHWH Has Just Planted A SEED, and it has fallen on YHWH’s Fertile Ground – Rob Skiba.

    O YHWH Yahwshua, Make Your Face To Shine Upon Us-We Your Returning Lost Sheep of the House of Yisrael – Hosea 6:1-3. Many, Many, Many Blessings In YHWH Yahwshua’s Name Most Wonderful!!! – Isayah 9:6.

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