Does "loving God" include my works or just how I feel?

tantalon Aug. 4 2020.

First
every human being has a choice.Repent and believe then GOD works In a person creating them In CHRIST UNTO good works.

After GOD creates you New then you are equipped and you should renew your mind.

JESUS IS the Vine and we are the branches receiving nourishment from the Vine and displaying spiritual fruit.

Both should go hand in hand, but I think more on how you feel.

The soul of man, which is the man (Gen.2:7), is made of three parts - (i) mind, or the thinking organ, (ii) will, or the deciding organ, and (iii) emotions, or the feeling organ. Unlike English, the bible has THREE loves:

1. agape - the perfect love of God
2. philadelphia - brotherly love
3. eros - the physical love of attraction

After Peter had denied the Lord thrice, and was again restored, our Lord Jesus asked Peter if he LOVED Him in John 21:15-17. The Lord asked Peter if he "AGAPEO" Him. But Peter had learned something by his failure. He answers; "I PHILEO you". Again our Lord Jesus asks Peter; "Do you "AGAPEO" me? But Peter stands firm and answers; "Lord, you know I PHILEO you". The our Lord Jesus is satisfied and asks Peter the third time; "Do you PHILEO me?

What is learned from this exchange? It is that we do love our Lord, but with an IMPERFECT love. Not that Philadelphia is an imperfect love, but that it is not up to the standard of Christ's love. It can fail. The love required by a man to be obedient to the commands of Jesus is "AGAPE" - the love of God. John 14:15 says; "If ye love (AGAPEO) me, keep my commandments." And this in turn brings us to one of the most crucial points of the whole Bible. IN ORDER TO MEET GOD'S REQUIREMENTS WE NEED A CHANGE OF NATURE! Even bandits can love their fellow bandit or love a woman ("philadelphia"). But who can love Christ the way He requires? You can't, UNLESS you have a change of nature! And this brings us back to Eden.

What was God's purpose with Adam. Was he not created in order? YES! But he was an orderly HUMAN. To be LIKE God and to display God by being His IMAGE, a man must be like Jesus - a mixing, or organic mingling of HUMAN life and DIVINE life. When one eats fruit the metabolism starts to work on the fruit and after some hours, if we cut the man open, we will not find the fruit. It has become organically ONE with the man. In the Old Testament God was the center of Israel. He dwelt WITH them. God was in the Tabernacle and on each side of the Tabernacle encamped three Tribes. It was; God here ... and Israel there. Close ... but separate. The New Testament is totally different. God dwells IN His people. He is organically ONE with the man He lives IN (Jn.3:6; 1st Cor.6:17). God is not THERE ... and we are HERE. WE have an INSEPARABLE UNION. So much so that "we are made partakers of the divine nature!" (2nd Pet.1:4).

And because this divine nature is intrinsically ours, we are in the position to tap into it. And not only tap into it, but allow it to permeate our whole souls too. Our mind should go from the self-seeking, degraded mind of the Adamic man to the mind of Christ. Our will, our decisions, should more and more be in favor of obeying Christ. And our EMOTIONS should go from the standard feelings of a robber to loving Christ (and one another) with AGAPE - the love "up to the standard of" Jesus. The road is long and rocky. We ever tend to fall back to our degraded humanity. But by constant watching, and constant contact with our Lord Jesus, we can slowly, but surely, be transformed into His image (2nd Cor.3:18). Notice the PROCESS and PROGRESSION in a Christian's life in 2nd Peter 1:3-11:

• In verse 3, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, ... " we have the rebirth
• In verse 4 we have the result of rebirth; "... that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, ... ."
• In verse 5 WE must add. "... giving all diligence, add to your faith ... ." How do we add? By going to the grocery store? By visiting Bethlehem? NO! By returning to verse 3! We have, IN HIM, all things that are needed. And where is that PLACE? Where is Jesus for the Christian? IN THE HUMAN SPIRIT (Jn.3:6). Christ, "as that Spirit that we should RECEIVE" (Jn.7:39), with His FULL HUMANITY mixed with His DIVINITY, dwells in our humans spirits.
• In verse 6 to 7we see what must be added. All the VIRTUES of our Lord Jesus. Notice the progression. Verse 7 has, as the second last virtue - PHILADELPHIA. But the last thing we can add is AGAPE!
• In verse 10 we learn why we must ADD the virtues of Christ - "... to make your calling and election sure: ... ." What is this? Is not our rebirth enough? NO! Our rebirth is the adding of the very God to our human spirits, but man is a SOUL (Gen.2:7), and the nature and life of God in Christ must PERMEATE our souls. Why? So that the reason we were called and chosen can be attained. And what is that? To get to heaven? I think not! The GOAL of your calling and elections is in Genesis 1:26-28 and Romans 8:29. TO BE CONFORMED TO THE IMAGE AND LIKENESS OF CHRIST - AND THEN RULE THE EARTH. This brings us to verse 11.
• In verse 11, "For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." It is only those who have gone through this process of being conformed to the image and likeness of Christ who will be found WORTHY to be co-kings with Christ in His KINGDOM ON EARTH. In Daniel Chapter 2 we are introduced to the remaining four world Gentile Powers, starting with Babylon. In Daniel 2:34 it says that Christ will crush Gentile rule. And in verse 35 Christ's Kingdom will "fill the EARTH"! Then, in Daniel 7:27 we find that not only Christ will rule this Kingdom, but that He will have a "PEOPLE" who will rule with Him. And to do this you must be LIKE Christ. God cannot afford to have corrupt people running His Kingdom.

Christ needs men and women who will OBEY Him - like David did. And who will obey Him? Those who LOVE (AGAPE) Him. The Christian who does not go through the process of being CONFORMED to the image of Christ, by (i) fiery trials (1st Peter 1), and by (ii) ADDING VIRTUES (2nd Peter 1) will not be equipped to be LIKE Christ and RULE LIKE CHRIST. THAT ... is our calling and election. If the Christian does not reach a state in his/her walk where we can finally LOVE Christ with the perfect LOVE (AGAPE), we will not make our calling and election sure.

Wow. Please forgive the long posting. I got carried away.

tourist Aug. 4 2020

what did Jesus say is the first commandment?

I'll have to google that. Just kidding. Something about the Lord thy God and not having any other gods before Him.

He means well It's just that he has been on CC (Christian Chat) for less than a year and he probably thought that the name of the thread would be descriptive enough and he meant not to offend.☺️

I'm sure that he means well.

Here is my take on it.

Loving God does not include your works and definitely not on how you feel.

If we allow emotions to get in the way then they can dictate away from the truth.

The truth is that there is nothing you can do to make God love you more and nothing you can do that will make him love you less.

That is the foundation in a sense that we should be building on.

We are the apple of his eye.

So loving God does not include works. Before I am jumped on let me explain.

We could do works to earn love. Believe me I have spent many a time with people who say they do the works because they love God and I'm not convinced. When I dig deeper I see that they are doing the works to earn his love.

This is prevelant when they answer the question "Do you know he loves you as much as Jesus? And they reply with "No" and when you give them the Bible verse they find it hard to accept.

So we do works out of love for God because he loves us not to earn it.
This is where emotions can come in.
Our emotions can tell us we won't do it because negative attitude towards a person.
So we override our emotions and do it. Do it for God as he has asked us to but also because our love for God should be the same the other person.

Jesus would have had to set his emotions aside on the cross.
He did what he did as a result of love for those who crucified him and those who come to him.

@tantalon
I made a little joke, but here's this as a response to your thread :
Being in love, romantically, is a feeling, that last for up to two, three years of relationship.
But love is not a feeling, it's an emotional disposition.
This means that when bad things happen to someone you love, you are sad.
If they succeed, you are joyful.
If they are glad, you are glad.
If someone hurts them, you are angry.
If they are in danger, you are concerned.
If you are with them, you are happy.
If they need something from you, you want to help.
So love is not just an emotion, but a disposition, that may bring us various emotions and stir us to different actions.

You went deep and I like and agree.🙂

Very odd question. I mean, if you loved God, God would have given you the answer.

You are telling it like it is. More than anything else love is an action, and not just merely words or a feeling. As you have rightly stated, there is a major difference between being in love with a person or loving that person. Two different things really.

All our feelings are brought on by our thoughts. Our minds are very important to our Christian walk.

When God was training the Israelites through Moses, he had them watch their food for purity. Yet God stated it wasn't what went in the stomachs that was the important thing, then he speaks of things of the heart. At the time of Christ not a person thought of the mind as having thoughts, they thought the heart functioned as a mind. Not eating animals that ate garbage was to be followed by not letting garbage in to feed the mind. Under the new covenant the Holy Spirit guides us instead of diet.

So giving ourselves in love for God means first learning to know God through our minds, then letting the Holy Spirit guide our minds, Love follows.

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. ...(Jesus)

Salvation does not include works. One is saved at the moment of conversion and the Holy spirit is now in residence in the repentant believer. Afterwards, 1st John says, "But whoso keeps his word, in him verily is THE LOVE OF God PERFECTED, hereby know we that we are in him". I am not going to type out a lot of verses, but just ask that before anyone starts giving personal opinions, look up the key words in the question from your CONCORDANCE, and use the KJV. Ideas from commentaries, books and opinions just do not cut it, the truth is only found in the word of God, don't go else where. And stop all these cutting remarks to each other, that behaviour is shameful.

If you feel love God than you must fell love other

I john 4:20

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
Love God = love man, it mean
Fell love God = fell love man

If you fell love man and you know that man hungry> you will feed him,

So if you love man, have a food and know hungry man, your love will translate your love in to work ( work to buy a food, and prepare a burger for him)