The world (especially modern Western culture) has reshaped the concept of “love.” Sin is no longer recognized as sin. Repentance is obsolete. Liberty from the Law is used as a license to sin freely. Correcting others living in sin is forbidden and considered unloving and judgmental. If you are truly loving and forgiving, they say, you will overlook the “mistakes” of others and accept them unconditionally regardless of the immoral lifestyles they lead and openly promote with pride. (2 Timothy 3:2-5) Any disagreement with the world’s shape of love is considered evil and hateful.
The godly shape of love is very different from the world’s. With love, God codified both sin and good works by delivering the Ten Commandments on two tablets of stone. With love and mercy, God caused us to recognize our sin and provided His free gift of repentance and faith in His promises. With love, God saved us from damnation by destroying his only begotten son on a bloody humiliating cross. As a loving and just God, he will judge the world, separate the sheep from the goats, saving his own and sending unrepentant sinners to an eternal lake of fire. The world does not recognize this as love, but rather a brutish form of ancient fundamentalism.
“[Love] does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”
(1 Corinthians 13:6)
It was in this spirit of a godly shape of love the essay “Be Zealous and Repent“[1] was written. Those conforming to the worldly shape of love will probably consider it hateful. My hope is those conforming to the godly shape of love will recognize the love in which it was written. (Mark 12:30-31)
“For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
(Hebrews 12:6), (Proverbs 3:12)
By love the Word became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14) It is this same Word that we must heed, over and above the world, family, and friends.
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.”
(Matthew 10:37)
In 1517, Dr. Martin Luther (while still a devoted Catholic) wrote the “95 Theses,” explaining that he wrote it “Out of love for the truth…” with the hope of correcting false doctrines within the Church — he did not wish to start a Reformation.
If you find anything false in the essay, I take full responsibility and implore you to correct me in love using God’s Word. If you find any truth in the essay, then give all thanks, praise, glory and honor to God!
[1] A MD5 calculation can be used to verify you have an unaltered copy of the essay PDF. Instructions are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The MD5 check sum should be: 50cde0bcb5d21e70d15c4c5a48ed6f63