HomeARC ML 0648
"IS LOVE AGAINST THE LAW?"--MO GP NO.648
Copyright © January 1978 by The Children of God
1. REMEMBER, WHATSOEVER WE DO IN WORD OR IN DEED WE'RE TO DO ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND WE'RE TO DO IT ALL IN LOVE. (1Cor.10:31.) If we're keeping God's Law of Love then we'll try not to hurt or offend anybody, we'll do our best to try to live in love, to help people without offending anyone. We can't very well help offending the church, especially the false church, because of its false lies and false doctrines and false laws which are contrary to the law of God.
2. JESUS HIMSELF COULDN'T PLEASE THE SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES NO MATTER WHAT HE DID.--And they finally hung Him! He offended them no matter what He did, because He preached exactly what I'm preaching right now--that you don't have to keep the so-called Mosaic Law, all you have to do is love.
3. HIS DOCTRINE OF LOVE JUST INFURIATED THEM! It destroyed their whole church system, destroyed their religious authority. It destroyed their hold on the people, destroyed their power and their control, and their money too by the way, and therefore they were furious at Him because He was destroying them, and destroying their whole false system.
4. BUT HE WENT AHEAD AND DID IT ANYWAY, DIDN'T HE? He didn't try to please them on it. He didn't go out of His way to annoy them, but He just went about trying to love people and help people, and if it went against their grain, He couldn't help that. There wasn't anything He could do to please them, nothing, just like us.
5. THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO TO PLEASE THAT FALSE CHURCH AND ITS FALSE DOCTRINES. There's nothing we can do because they hate us. We have exposed them and we've exposed their lack of love. We've shown that we have the right doctrine and the truth and the love and the people and they don't have it, and they therefore hate us for it.
6. OUR WHOLE DOCTRINE OF LOVE IS CONTRARY TO THEIR DOCTRINE OF LAW, their doctrine of hate, their doctrine of enforcement and their doctrine of fear and terror.--It's totally contrary to their whole way. Therefore of course we lovers of love and the Lord are going to run afoul of the lovers of the law and legalism, and we cannot possibly please them because love is love and law is law and never the twain shall meet!
7. GOD'S ONLY LAW IS LOVE, and if what you're doing you're doing in love and you're not hurting any innocent party, then it is perfectly legal for you according to God's Law of Love. Right?--I said innocent party--now hurting guilty parties, that's something we can't avoid.
8. (MARIA: SAY A MAN WAS MAKING LOVE WITH ONE OF US AND HIS WIFE HADN'T GIVEN HIM THE LOVE THAT WE CAN GIVE HIM, GOD'S LOVE, she's not innocent, she's guilty ...) Well, if she hasn't got the Love of God, she hasn't got real love at all. Maybe she just has a covetous desire for his money or his house or his children or his car and position, his name and the proper appearances, and it may not be in love at all. The love she's giving him may be purely selfish lust for power and fame and glory and his name and his position and not genuine love at all.
9. HOW CAN SHE GIVE HIM UNSELFISH LOVE IF SHE DOESN'T HAVE THE LOVE OF GOD? If she hasn't got the Love of Christ, if she hasn't got God, Who is Love, how can she give him love when she hasn't got love? (Maria: So if she isn't giving him love then it's all right if he gets it from somewhere else.) And it's her own fault and she's the guilty party, therefore she has absolutely no excuse for being hurt by it.
10. MOST WOMEN ARE ONLY JEALOUS FOR SELFISH REASONS. They pretend to be hurt by it and go into a jealous fit or rage over it. If they find out their husband's getting it someplace else when they themselves are not giving it to him, they blow up. But they have no excuse.
11. IF THEY THEMSELVES ARE DENYING HIM HIS DUE, THEN IT'S THEIR OWN FAULT! They've got no excuse to blow up about it. (Maria: Because actually, his wife is not going to be hurt by someone sharing the Lord's Love with him, she's going to be better for it because the husband will be able to share God's Love with her.) Yes.
12. MANY TIMES THERE HAS BEEN NO LOVE LOST IN THE FAMILY AT ALL because the husband also has not had the love that he should have had for his wife. If he had had the Love of God he could have imparted that love to her and taught her God's Love and therefore she could have had love.
13. BUT IF NEITHER HAVE HAD LOVE, NEITHER HAS LOST ANY LOVE. If both have been selfish and covetous and lustful and not really sacrificially loving, then there was no love lost anywhere, because there was no love to begin with. So it's a two-way street, it works both ways, and both could be guilty.
14. BUT IF HE FINDS LOVE THROUGH US, God's real genuine unselfish sacrificial Love, he is going to want to go back to his wife and try to show her love and lead her to Christ and give her God's Love. He'll try to teach her love and show her love and give her a chance to receive it.
15. IT MIGHT MAKE HER THE KIND OF WIFE SHE OUGHT TO BE, it even might make her the kind of wife he'd fall back in love with! It might repair and mend and restore their marriage. God can restore a whole marriage if both people find His Love and find Him and find faith in Him. Through that they can find love for one another.
16. BUT IF HE GOES BACK TO HER AND SHE REJECTS GOD'S LOVE, she rejects such faith, she rejects such truth, then he's no longer obligated. If she rejects this love, she has rejected God's Love and she has rejected Jesus Christ.
17. THEREFORE YOU'RE NO LONGER RESPONSIBLE FOR HER. God's Word says that if you have delivered your soul, their blood's not on your hands. (Eze.3:19.) Her blood's not on his hands if he's delivered his soul and tried to win her and she won't accept Christ. So he is to try to forgive her if she's sorry.
18. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO FORGIVE PEOPLE WHO AREN'T SORRY, believe it or not. When Peter asked, "If my brother sin against me, how many times should I forgive him?" Jesus said to forgive him 70 times 7. (Mt.18:21-22.) But if he's not sorry and he doesn't ask you to forgive him, you don't have to forgive him.
19. NOW, HOWEVER, PAUL SAYS THAT EVEN IF SHE'S AN UNBELIEVER AND SHE STILL WANTS TO STAY WITH HIM, let's say she's giving him his due, she's letting him have the sex he needs and wants, and giving him the only love she knows and she wants to remain with him, God's Word says to let her remain.--Let her remain, that he might yet win her. (1Cor.7:12.)
20. BUT IT DOES NOT SAY THAT HE HAS TO KEEP HIMSELF ENTIRELY TO HER where he's not getting the kind of love he needs. In fact, the Scripture does not prohibit him from taking on another wife if he wants to, to get what he needs from somebody else, savvy?--Or if not another wife, another lover who will give him the kind of love he needs.
21. IF SHE LEAVES WILLINGLY AND WANTS TO GO, THEN YOU'RE TO LET HER GO. But if she doesn't want to go, you're to let her remain, that's love. If she wants to stay with you and the children and she's still willing to give you the love, or sex at least, that you need, well then, God's Word says to let her remain.
22. BUT, IF IN SUCH A CASE, THE MAN IS STILL NOT GETTING THE KIND OF LOVE HE NEEDS, he certainly has a right to seek it elsewhere, and she has no right to complain if she's not giving it to him. That's love. If she really loves him and she can't give him what he needs, then she should want him to go someplace else where he can get it, if she really loves him.
23. IF YOU REALLY LOVE SOMEBODY YOU WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY. And if they're not completely happy with you, you'll want them to find somebody they can be happy with, right? So, praise God. That takes a lot of love, real love, genuine love, unselfish love, sacrificial love, that's what you want to be sure that you're giving.
24. THAT'S WHY WE HUSBANDS CAN EVEN BE WILLING TO SHARE OUR WIVES and our wives be willing to share their husbands because they do it unselfishly, sacrificially, in love, for someone else's sake who needs it. This is real love, this is the highest form of love.
25. THIS IS LOVE LIKE CHRIST'S LOVE, TOTALLY UNSELFISH, totally sacrificial, even giving till it hurts, as David said and as Jesus did. That is real Love, that's God, that's a miracle! That is supernatural Love given by God, God-given Love, amen? That's the Love of God.
26. THE ONLY RULE WE CAN GO BY IN EVERY CASE IS, "IS IT LOVE? Was it done in love, was it received in love? Was it received as love?" Well, sometimes they might receive it and not even appreciate the love, but it was still love if the one who gave it gave it in love. So, that is God's only law--Love.
27. JESUS SAID THE LAW OF LOVE IS ALL THE LAW, AS WELL AS ALL THE PROPHETS! (Mt. 22:37-40.) That's pretty broad coverage! That takes in the entire Old Testament, the law and the prophets. David too was a prophet, so that takes in Psalms, and so were Job and Solomon. That takes in all of their poetical books as well, and the rest are all the historical books of the law and the prophets. So Jesus said that's the whole works, the whole Bible, that's all the law--Love.
28. GOD'S ONLY LAW IS LOVE! THERE IS NOW NO OTHER LAW, no Mosaic law, no church law, no law against adultery.--Those laws don't exist as far as we're concerned. They are only to regulate the ungodly, as he says in 1Tim.1:9, and by which the unrighteous who are violating the laws of God will be judged.
29. YOU HAVE TO JUDGE EVERY SINGLE CASE ON ITS OWN MERITS and its own conditions as to whether whatever's being done is done in love. And as far as I know, most of what we do is certainly in love, if not all. We're trying to do it all in love, that's for sure. We're trying to do it because of love and because they need God's love.
30. THE MAIN THING WE'RE TRYING TO GIVE THEM IS GOD'S LOVE, NOT JUST SEX. Sometimes we use sex as a tool or as a proof that we love them, we use sex as a sample of love, but it's not the main kind of love we're trying to give them.
31. (MARIA: IT SEEMS LIKE THEY'RE STRAINING AT A GNAT WHEN THEY START TALKING ABOUT THIS SEX PART.) Yes, that's the one thing they magnify and make the most important. In the rare exception, not the rule, we are willing to go to bed with them to prove that we love them, but this is not the main part of our religion.
32. THE WORLD IS EXAGGERATING THIS AND PLAYING IT UP AS THE THING because it's such a rare and exceptional thing. It's so outlandish and so almost unknown that for the Love of God people would go around giving out sex because people need it.--It's practically unheard of!
33. WE'RE VIRTUALLY A NEW RELIGION IN THAT RESPECT. We shouldn't be, and I'm sure it's happened before. There are historical cases of it many times before, but it's just new to people today, that's all, and they can't seem to understand it.
34. SEX IS THE LEAST OF OUR WORRIES, sex is the least of our doctrines, sex is one of the least of our concerns, frankly. But the world exaggerates it because it's so interested in sex.
35. SEX IS PRIMARY TO THE WORLD. Sex is all-important, all-overwhelming, all-consuming, and therefore they're totally amazed and shocked that we're willing to give them this thing they desire the most in the world. It's not all that big a thing with us. They play it up and make it a big thing.
36. SEX IS A SMALL PART OF LIFE TO US. Sex is a small part of the body. Sex is one of the least important things in our religion.
37. LOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.--The Love of God, unselfish, pure, sacrificial Love, no matter how it's manifested. Whether it's in sex or otherwise, and it's manifested otherwise much more than it is just in sex.
38. THERE ARE MANY MANY MORE WAYS YOU CAN SHOW LOVE BESIDES SEX. But we live in a very sexy generation where sex is exaggerated completely out of all proportion to what it should be. People today are terrifically desirous of sex and in need of sex, therefore if you don't satisfy their sexual appetite they have a hard time believing that you really love them.
39. SO SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO SATISFY THAT APPETITE TO PROVE TO THEM THAT WE REALLY CARE and we're concerned and we love them. And there's no law of God against it, for the plain and simple reason that if we do it in love and to show God's Love to them, then it's according to God's law of love.--We're loving our neighbour as ourselves.
40. "THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF." (Mt.22:39.) How do you love yourself, huh? Do you want yourself to be happy? Yes. Do you want yourself to be satisfied? Yes.
41. WE WANT THEM TO BE HAPPY AND WE WANT THEM TO BE SATISFIED, SO WE GIVE THEM LOVE, primarily God's Love, but if they need a little sex too we give that to them too, if they have to have it to make them happy and satisfied and contented, and it gives us a chance to show them God's Love. It has nothing to do with adultery. Adultery is something gone out of style, you might say, with the Mosaic Law.
42. WE, WHO ARE CHRISTIANS, WHO HAVE GOD, WHO HAVE HIS LOVE, ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE LAW. But the sinner who is unsaved, who has rejected Jesus Christ, who does not have God and hasn't got God's Love in his heart, he is still under that law. That's the difference!
43. THE UNSAVED ARE STILL SUBJECT TO THE LAWS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT and the Mosaic Law!--God's rigid strict hard laws of old. They're still subject to those laws because the law, it says as plain as day, is for the ungodly, for the unrighteous and for the lawbreaker! (1Tim.1:9.) So he's still under the law.
44. BUT WE ARE FREE FROM THE LAW BECAUSE WE HAVE LEARNED LOVE now, which is greater than the law. We have learned love. We have learned to love. We have received love from God, we have love, and this frees us from the laws of Moses. (Rom.8:2.)
45. IF WE HAVE LOVE, GOD'S LOVE, AND WE DO EVERYTHING WE DO IN LOVE, THAT'S BETTER THAN THE LAW. It covers a lot more territory and is much more strict, but much more sacrificial, much more unselfish than simply obeying the old Mosaic Law just because you want to stay out of trouble or you don't want God to punish you.
46. JESUS' LAW OF LOVE FREES US FROM THAT LAW AND IS ALL-ENCOMPASSING, all-absorbing, all-fulfilling and completely above and beyond any other law. Therefore God's only law is love, and as long as something is done in love, with real unselfish, even sacrificial Love, God's Love, then it is absolutely lawful in God's eyes. No matter whether it be a sin in the eyes of the church and a crime in the eyes of man, it's still absolutely innocent in the eyes of God if it's according to love, amen? So thank You Jesus, amen.
47. THAT'S THE LAW, GOD'S LAW, JESUS' LAW--LOVE! God's only law is love, against such there is no law, amen? You just read it in the Bible. Don't start in the Old Testament though, start in the New Testament, and particularly in the Epistles you'll find it.
48. IN A SENSE JESUS HIMSELF WAS STILL UNDER THE OLD LAW, so you cannot even go just by what He said to them about the law. At that time they were still not saved, they were not yet under grace. They were still under the old law and they still had to keep it.
49. IT WASN'T UNTIL JESUS PAID THE PRICE ON CALVARY, so that God could give the pardon, that we received grace and mercy and forgiveness and His Love--not until then. So the people Jesus was talking to were still under the law. (Jn.1:17.)
50. SOME OF HIS DISCIPLES WERE BEGINNING TO LEARN WHAT THE LAW OF LOVE MEANT. He was trying to teach them the new way and the law of love. According to the old Mosaic Law they were compelled to worship at the tabernacle, or the temple or Jerusalem. But when the woman at the well said,
51. "WELL, OUR FATHERS SAY YOU OUGHT TO WORSHIP HERE, AND YOUR FATHERS SAY YOU OUGHT TO WORSHIP THERE." He said, "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. But the hour cometh and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him." (Jn.4:20-23.)
52. IN OTHER WORDS HE WAS SAYING THE TIME HAS COME WHEN IT DOESN'T MATTER A DAMN BIT WHERE YOU WORSHIP, here or in Jerusalem, in church or out of church, in the nearest bar or bawdy house, as long as you worship God in your heart, in spirit, and in truth, in love in other words. That's the kind of people God wants to worship Him, not those who simply worship Him according to law or church rules or the old Mosaic Law or in Jerusalem or at Mecca or anyplace else.
53. WHERE GOD WANTS PEOPLE TO WORSHIP HIM IS RIGHT WHERE THEY'RE AT ALL THE TIME, and that's in their own hearts and their own spirits and in truth.--Not in a bunch of lies, but in the truth of God and His Word, and that's love. God's truth is Love, praise God? So that's it, that's the law--love. "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
54. IF YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF, YOU'LL PUT YOURSELF IN HIS PLACE, and wonder how you would feel if you were there, and wonder what you would want and need to have fulfilled, amen? "Neighbour" doesn't just mean the one that lives next door, it doesn't even mean just the one you were dancing with or the one closest to you.
55. WHAT DID JESUS SAY WHEN HIS CRITICS ASKED HIM, "BUT WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?" You talk about legalists, they want to know exactly, technically, who's my neighbour? In other words, "Tell me exactly who I have to love, so I know who I don't have to love."
56. THAT'S WHEN HE GAVE THE EXAMPLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, the Samaritans whom the Jews hated. If they even touched a Samaritan they'd have to wash afterwards! They wouldn't even go the shortest route to Galilee which was right through Samaria, they went clear across the Jordan and clear around it just to keep from going near the Samaritans.
57. JESUS TOLD THEM THE STORY OF A SAMARITAN WHO HELPED A POOR BEATEN UP JEW who'd been robbed. He picked him up and bound his wounds and took him to a hotel and paid his bill.
58. JESUS SAID THIS WAS A GOOD NEIGHBOUR, A SAMARITAN WHO WAS GOOD TO A JEW, how about that? In other words He was as good as telling the Jews, "Listen, you know who your neighbours are. Those Samaritans up there in Samaria, the ones you hate and you won't even touch and you won't even go near and have nothing to do with, they're your neighbours. You better get busy and love them!" (Lk.10:29-37.)
59. SO YOUR NEIGHBOUR IS ANYBODY THAT NEEDS YOUR LOVE--ANYBODY--even if he lives halfway around the world. If he needs your love and God's Love, then you ought to give to the missionaries who are going over there trying to save him. He's your neighbour, he lives in this world somewhere.
60. HE MAY NOT LIVE NEXT DOOR, BUT IF HE LIVES ON THIS EARTH HE'S YOUR NEIGHBOUR, so you're responsible for him. And you're certainly responsible for those who are right around you and near you, that's for sure!--So are we. That's why we love them because God's only law is love and it supercedes all other laws. You are living in love, and you are working in love, and loving in love.
61. THE LAW STILL EXISTS FOR OTHERS WHO ARE STILL UNDER IT BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE LOVE. But those who have love don't need it, and they're no longer under it. If your every action, every thought, every word, every deed is guided by love, motivated by love, ordained by love, you couldn't possibly do anything wrong. (Titus 1:15.)
62. WELL, WE MAKE A FEW MISTAKES SOMETIMES, sometimes I think we make a few mistakes in some of the people we love who don't appreciate it, like one old friend who's now our Judas and bitterest of enemies. Sometimes I think it was a mistake to ever love him in the first place.
63. BUT JESUS MUST HAVE LOVED JUDAS OR HE WOULDN'T HAVE CALLED HIM. He gave him the chance, even if he turned traitor on Him and betrayed Him, He must have loved him, it must have saddened Him to see what Judas did. Judas did it to save his own neck because of the pressure of the religion of his day, the pressure of Jesus' enemies and for a little monetary gain at the same time, but he sure didn't do it in love, that's for sure.
64. SO I DON'T SAY WE DON'T MAKE MISTAKES sometimes. Maybe it's just that we have too much love, maybe that's a mistake, but I don't know that you can have too much love.
65. GOD'S MERCY SEEMS TO BE UNLIMITED, HIS LOVE IS BOUNDLESS. Praise God! The Love of God is greater than His laws, praise God! It says if your heart condemn you don't worry about it, God is greater than your heart. (1Jn.3:20.) If the law condemns you don't worry about it, love is greater than the law, because God is Love, Love is God, and God can do no wrong.
66. TRUE LOVE CAN DO NO WRONG, SO HOW CAN IT BE UNDER ANY LAW? How can it be against any law? He says, "against such there is no law!" (Gal.5:22-23.) Against such love there is no law, so how can anything that you do in love be against the law?
67. IT MAY BE AGAINST MAN'S LAWS AND CHURCH LAWS, BUT IT IS CERTAINLY NOT AGAINST THE LAW OF GOD! It may even be against social laws and customs and society's rules and mores, but it's not against God's laws.
68. AS FAR AS GOD IS CONCERNED THERE'S NO LAW BUT LOVE--EXCEPT FOR THE SINNERS WHO ARE OUTSIDE OF LOVE and outside of faith and do not have God and reject Christ, they're under the old law. Let me tell you, they're plenty under it, and will be condemned by it and judged by it and go to hell by it! But not we who are believers and Christians and have faith and have Jesus Christ in our hearts and God and His Love.
69. WE ARE NOT JUDGED BY THE OLD LAW--WE ARE JUDGED ONLY BY LOVE.--How much love we have and how much we give and how much we share. God will judge us by love in His mercy and not by the law. He will judge us by only one law, the Law of Love, the only law of God! Amen. Thank You Lord! XXXXXXX! I love you! Against such love there is no law!--So LOVE!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
