The Love of God Part 2

THE LOVE OF GOD IS NOT IN MANY RELIGIOUS PEOPLE:-- "But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you" (John 5:42). This perceptive remark by Jesus was made in His reply to some of the "Jews [who] sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (John 5:18). It is interesting that Jesus said to these legalistic Jews, "I KNOW YOU." Eight times in the Book of Revelation Jesus said in his messages to the 7 Churches, "I KNOW".  To the legalistic Jews in John 5:42 above, He said, "I know... that ye have not the love of God in you" -- and to the Ephesian Church He said: "I know... thou hast left thy first love" (Rev. 2:2, 4). Once, after my mother's dramatic, spiritual reclamation she said something to me regarding some legalistic holiness folks that I have never forgotten: "Carnality is a bad heart, and a lot of very religious people have it." The Jews who sought to kill Jesus for his alleged breaking of the Sabbath, were very religious, but they had bad hearts, void of the love of God. And, no doubt there have been some holiness professors of the sort who would never dream of shaving on Sunday, but whose hearts were, nonetheless, void of the love of God.

When the rich young Jewish ruler came to Jesus seeking to learn "what good thing he could do" to enter heaven, perhaps the Lord could just as truthfully told him: "I KNOW YOU; you have been quite precise in keeping the letter of the Law, but you have not the love of God in you, for in spite of all of your careful observations, you really love money and possessions!"

The Lord knows -- all things, and all men. After the resurrected Christ queried the reclaimed Peter the third time, asking, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep" (John 21:17). (Note: Christ did not say, "Shear My sheep, nor Slaughter My sheep!) Perhaps one of the main reasons Christ repeatedly asked Peter if he loved Him was to fix in Peter's mind the fact that, rather than wield a bloody sword in His defense, Jesus wanted Peter to have and manifest to all -- the love of God -- and thus "feed His sheep" and "find those who were astray." It was later, at Pentecost, that Peter received the fullness of the love of God that would make him the loving pastor of the flock that Christ wanted him to be. Sans that baptism of Divine love, Peter might have wielded a spiritual sword as bloody as the one that severed Malchus' ear.