The Way of Love

(This is chapter 6 of the book The Way of Sonship: Anointed to Overcome)

Within ancient Hebrew culture, the word “first” meant far more than just “first”. In many tournaments or races there are consolation prizes for the losers who do not win, but there can usually only ever be one actual winner. The word “consolation” comes from the Latin “consolari” which meant to offer solace or comfort to the losers who are disappointed that they did not win. It says in Mark 12:28-31 (KJV) “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, ‘which is the first commandment of all?’ And Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is One Lord:  And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these”. Hebraically, the first commandment to love God with all of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength was not just “first” in rank, but like the winner of a race, it was the “first” commandment because it was set above all others. Jesus said to the Church of Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5 (KJV) “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou have left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent”. There are no consolation prizes for losers with loveless hearts in the Kingdom of God. God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives within them. The Ephesians had been winners who had lived in God, but they had become losers by forsaking and forgetting their first love. Jesus said in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that ye love one another; according as I did love you, that ye also love one another; in this shall all [the world] know that ye are my disciples, if ye may have love one to another”. Jesus threatened to come and remove the lampstand of the light of God’s love from amongst them because the world no longer knew that they were Jesus’ disciples. They were no longer shining with the light of God’s love but instead they had become enamoured with themselves. However, Jesus promised that those who repented from the “I am as god” pride of this self-love and overcame by returning to their first love, would be given the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of the love of God’s fatherhood. Those who did not repent would lose that right despite their religious boasts and claims.

The Scribe who heard Jesus speaking about the first commandment of all replied in Mark 12:32-34 “‘Well, Teacher, in truth thou has spoken that there is One God, and there is none other but He; and to love Him out of all the heart, and out of all the understanding, and out of all the soul, and out of all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as one’s self, is more than all the whole burnt-offerings and the sacrifices.’ And Jesus, having seen him that he answered with understanding, said to him, ‘Thou art not far from the reign of God;’” Within ancient Hebrew culture the reign or kingdom of God or Heaven was not something that people experienced after they were dead. Jesus was not saying that this particular Scribe was somehow loitering at death’s door. Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:3,5-6 “If anyone may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God…If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God; that which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit”. Hebraically to see something was to experience it. Jesus was not talking about entering the reign or Kingdom of God by dying and going to Heaven. He was talking about experiencing the Kingdom of God by dying to pride in the waters of baptism and then being born of the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. In Matthew 12:28 Jesus said, “But if I, by the Spirit of God, do cast out the demons, then come already unto you did the reign of God”. The kingdom or reign of God or Heaven was within people’s hearts (see Luke 17:21). It was within the hearts of those who had repented from having self-admiring pride-poisoned puffed-up loveless hearts which only love those that love them and that are filled with the lying breaths of the prince of darkness and father of their rebellion. Instead they had the nature of their hearts changed by dying to the self-adoration and pride of self-worship and then being born of God’s love. It was then that Heaven filled people’s loving hearts. In Mark 9:47-50 Jesus said “….And if thine eye may cause thee to stumble, cast it out; it is better for thee one-eyed to enter into the reign of God, than having two eyes, to be cast to the Gehenna of the fire—where their worm is not dying, and the fire is not being quenched; for every one with fire shall be salted, and every sacrifice with salt shall be salted. The salt is good, but if the salt may become saltless, in what will ye season it? Have in yourselves salt and have peace in one another’”. The word “Gehenna” in Greek is the “Valley of Hinnom” in Hebrew, this was the local rubbish dump in Jerusalem where fires were not quenched, and worms continually ate the carcasses of the dead. The word “Gehenna” is often translated “hell” but that is not what Jesus was referring to. He was referring to Isaiah 66:23-24 “And it has been from month to month, and from sabbath to sabbath, Come do all flesh to bow themselves before Me, said Yehovah. And they have gone forth and looked on the carcases of the men who are transgressing against me, for their worm die not, and their fire is not quenched, and they have been an abhorrence to all flesh!” Jesus was talking about those who continue to wilfully rebel and transgress against the loving commandment of God to love God and love everyone else as well. That is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:44-45 “Love your enemies, bless those cursing you, do good to those hating you, and pray for those accusing you falsely, and persecuting you, that ye may be sons of your Father in the heavens, because His sun He doth cause to rise on evil and good, and He doth send rain on righteous and unrighteous”. Jesus was talking about the sons of rebellion or disobedience. He was talking about the religious community, people like the Scribes, Pharisees, and Teachers of the Law whom Jesus described as sons of the devil because they were full of hatred and bore the devil’s image or reflection in the way that they were inspired to behave. According to Luke 7:30, they rejected God’s purpose for themselves by not allowing the mercy and grace of God to lead them to John the Baptist to be baptised into repentance for the forgiveness of their sins. In the pride of their self-admiring “as god” hearts they could not see the need for forgiveness. There is no repentance in resurrection, the time for repentance and forgiveness is now. Because they did not believe or were established in the character, personality, or name of Jesus (see John 3:18) they remained under condemnation. Their behaviour in life will become their inheritance in resurrection. Just like Cain, the fires of their incensed rage at being condemned will not be quenched and the worms of their resentment that eat away at their self-admiring and loveless hearts will never die. Before the Fall, Adam would not have needed any commandments or laws. God is love, and Adam would have lived in love because God lived within Adam. It was only after the Fall, after Adam gasped out God, died to God’s love and replaced God’s love for him with the pride of self-adoration and idolatrous self-love that commandments were needed. That is why Paul said in Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit [breath of God’s fatherhood] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”. The Scribes, Pharisees, and Teachers of the Law who repeatedly confronted Jesus did not realise that if they had to be told to love from the outside-in, they were not sovereignly inspired by the grace of God to become Sons of God. The Sons of God live in love from the inside-out just like Jesus because He lives within them and they live within Him. That is why Jesus said in John 3:16 “for God did so love the world, that His Son—the only begotten—He gave, that everyone who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during”. Hebraically, life age-during or eternal life was not life that began after people had died, and “believing in” meant to become established “within” Jesus and sharing in his identity as the Son of God by being filled with the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood. That is why he said to Mary, as recorded in John’s gospel, on the day he rose from the dead “…be going on to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and to your God”.

In Hebrew there are two different words commonly used for the word “son”. One means the “seed of the house”, and the other the “man in the house”. In Hebrew, one of the words for love meant to “look towards the house with joy”. Sons were of great value to the fathers and were greatly loved because it was through their sons that their house was established. Through their sons establishing the father’s house, the name of the fathers lived on. John says in 1 John 3:1-3 (KJV) “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the Sons of God: therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure”. Within ancient Hebrew culture, the son of anyone was the reflection or image of their father in whatever way they behaved. Just as Abraham was called out of his identity as a natural born son and out from under authority of the “house” of his natural born father to become adopted as a Son of God, the Sons of God are called the Sons of God because their personality is the reflection or the mirror image of the life’s breath of the invisible God. Having changed fathers, like Abraham, God their Father dwells within the breathings of their personality or heart. Because their redeemed hearts already bear His image in the way that they inspired to behave, their bodies will also bear or inherit Jesus’ image when their bodies are redeemed at the First Resurrection. They keep themselves pure like He is pure because of their hope that when Jesus is revealed as the firstborn of many brothers, as His brothers or Bride, they will be revealed together with and just like him forever. Hebraically this is the meaning of eternal or everlasting life. They know that if they do not bear His loving image by loving everyone in life, they will not be counted worthy to be part of the First Resurrection. John says in 1 John 3:4-10 (KJV) “Whosoever commits sin also transgresses the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abides in him sins not: whosoever sins has not seen him, neither known him. Little children let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother”. Judas did not love Jesus, he hated him even though Jesus loved Judas. Because of the pride of his self-adoring darkened “I am as god” loveless heart, Judas consistently rejected and never received or was changed by Jesus’ love. In John 17:12 Jesus described Judas as a “son of destruction”. In John 13:27, it says that Satan entered into him. The father of lies was able to enter into Judas because in the pride of his heart, Judas agreed with the devil’s lies; the devil’s proud image or mark had formed within his heart. Judas was inspired by the destroying devil who now dwelt within that image within Judas’ personality to betray Jesus with a kiss. Eventually, being a law unto himself, in the pride of his heart Judas passed judgement upon himself and destroyed himself by hanging himself on a tree. This is why Jesus described him as the son, reflection, or image of the destroyer and his behaviour in life will become his inheritance in resurrection. One of the words in Hebrew for sin is “chatta”, and it meant to “miss the mark” or step out of line. Sin is rejecting the grace and mercy of God. It is choosing to have one’s conscience seared as with a hot iron. It is believing in, or agreeing with, the lies and temptations of the devil that sin will be good and that there are not dire eternal consequences for such bad behaviour. It is bearing his image or reflection by responding to the devil’s lies as if they were true by receiving the words of the devil’s lying breaths into one’s personality and attempting to get a blessing from things that are cursed. According to Paul in Romans 14:23, everything that is not of faith is sin. Sin is rejecting the grace and mercy of God. It is missing the mark or target of God’s purpose for someone’s life by them not walking by faith and love within the living light of the grace and love of God’s fatherhood. Those who are truly born of God are called the Sons of God because they do not continue to sin. Choosing to live in sin is not the grace of God but the curse of the devil. Instead they bear the image or reflection of God because God by his almighty breath or Holy Spirit dwells within the breathings of their personality or heart. They live in love because God is love, God dwells within them and they know that God’s unfailing love towards them will never fail. That is why Jesus said in John 13:34-35 (KJV) “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another”. The arrogant devil’s hateful lying breaths have no place in the redeemed and grace-humbled loving hearts of those who, by being filled with the Holy Spirit or life’s breath of God’s fatherhood, love like Jesus loves.

Jesus told a parable that is commonly called the “Parable of the Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:11-32). In English, the word prodigal is from the Latin “prodigus” meaning to be wasteful or to drive away. In this parable Jesus tells the story of an amazingly loving father with two sons. One day, the younger son shocked his father by brazenly asking his father for his inheritance well in advance of his father’s death. In effect, he said “Father if you were dead, I would be rich. You are clearly not getting any older, can I have my money now?”. Within ancient Hebrew culture this would have been considered an unimaginable insult. It says in Jeremiah 9:23 “This is what the LORD says, “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches: But let him that boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who shows love, mercy, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says the LORD”. The father’s younger son boasted in his wisdom, strength, and riches, but these things were not his own. They did not come from his “self”, rather they were gifts freely given to him by his father. In the pride of his heart, he did not understand what he was truly like apart from his father, and he did not boast in his father’s love. In love, and with a heavy heart the father divided his estate between his two sons. It was not long before the now very wealthy younger son believed the lie that he no longer needed his father who was standing in the way of him having a good time. He chose to become orphaned from his father by walking out and making his way to a far off place where he was free to choose for himself what was right or wrong, good or evil, true or false and live his life any way he wanted. He paid for prostitutes and threw wild parties. He was immensely popular for a season, but once his money ran out, so did his fortune-hunting friends. A great famine came to the land where he was living, and the son became destitute. He associated himself with a pig-farmer who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. The son became so hungry that the pig swill the pigs ate looked appetising, but no-one gave him anything. He had been a party animal, but the party was over, and an animal is how he had behaved. He was just a nameless nobody; no one knew him, and no one cared. One day, a miracle happened, the son came to his senses and the truth dawned upon his heart. Rather than him dying in the pig sty of lies that he had believed, he realised the truth that his father knew him, his father would recognize him, and that his father cared. His father was a righteous man who had servants who were living well, being treated well and were well fed. He determined to humble himself and return to his father, to confess his sins against both God and his father. In his “I am” heart he naturally assumed that to be loved he needed to be worthy of love which he was not. He did not understand that his father’s love did not depend upon him being worthy or lovable and he rehearsed beforehand the words “I am no more worthy to be called your son, make me one of your hired servants”. So, the destitute and unworthy son began the long journey home. His father had no ego to speak of and had not been offended by his prodigal son’s offensive behaviour. The father was humble in heart, and his love for his wayward lie-believing son never failed. He knew his son had been proud and had fallen but he also knew that his son was not a mindless idiot. The father often looked to the horizon in the knowledge that one day his son would remember his father’s love and come home. One day, when the son was still a long way off, the father spotted him. In a very undignified way, the father ran to his son. He then embraced and kissed him. The son gave his rehearsed speech, but this was ignored by his father because the father knew what his son would have been like apart from him.

The son had been proud and had fallen. Having been humbled by circumstances of his fall, the fallen and destitute state of the prodigal son became a perfect platform upon which the unmerited and unconditional love of his father could stand. This is what his father had been waiting for. The prodigal son was unworthy or even worthless in himself, but that did not matter to his father because the father recognised him as his son, and he loved him. In humility his son had come home. Because of this, the father was able to speak words of unmerited blessing over him that he could not have spoken as long as his son believed that he was the worthy cause of such blessing. The father commanded the servants to bring the best robe of honour to cover the shame of his son’s nakedness, gave to him a signet ring of authority, and gave him the sandals of a free man to adorn his feet of slavery. The true words of the father became a breath of life of his once dead son, changing him from a stinking lie enslaved rebel into someone who was blessed and honoured. The father ordered that the fattened calf was slaughtered to provide food for a banquet and that a party was held in honour of his now living son. Up until now, the story of the prodigal son was all about him, his life, what he did, what he desired and what he deserved. In the pride of his lie-believing self-centred “I am” heart, everything had revolved around him. However, upon his return everything changed. He realised that he was not the hero he thought he was, but that his father really was a hero and someone who could be trusted implicitly. His father’s love had been revealed, and the prodigal son no longer said in his heart “it’s all about me” – instead, he said, “it’s all about my wonderful and amazing father”. In this, the truth about the love of the father was revealed, and his son was no longer a lie-believing prodigal. Instead he became worthy in his father’s arms and his humbled heart knew that he was truly valued or worth-shipped by his father. He became the father’s true son or reflection; he was established in the truth of his father’s love and his father had become the treasure of his heart. In ancient Hebrew culture, “to establish” was the meaning of the word “faith” and there is no better expression of true faith in God than being inspired by the breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood into following Jesus by walking or living in the love and humility of the way, the truth and the life.

The prodigal’s orphan-hearted elder brother missed the redemption of his destitute and unworthy brother. In the pride of his heart he believed the lie that he had to earn his father’s love. He had been slaving in the father’s fields in an attempt to guarantee that his father loved him. He wondered what all the commotion was about. When he found out, in the pride of his heart, the elder brother was offended by what he wrongly believed was the scandalous and unfair unconditional lavish love that his father showed to his unworthy brother. In the pride of his heart he had strived to make himself lovable and practically perfect in every way, yet he felt that his father never gave him anything. In his proud heart he saw this as injustice – a personal insult and rejection of all the effort and hard work he had put into making himself worthy to be loved. This was not a platform upon which the unmerited and unconditional love of the father could stand. Rather, it was an impenetrable brick wall of pride that kept his father’s love for him at bay. His father loved him just as much and pleaded with him to come into the party and rejoice together with him. In his anger, the elder brother refused and said “All these years I have slaved for you. Never once have I ever disobeyed you, but you never ever gave me even a goat for me to share with my friends”. Because of his pride, the elder brother could never quite believe the truth that his father’s love for him was not dependent upon him being lovable or worthy. Because of his pride he was trying to earn something that could not be earned, to win something that could be neither won nor actually lost. His father still loved him but in the midst of his own personal pity-party, without humbling himself he could never believe, receive, or be changed by this love. Being full of pride his blindness to everything except himself continued and his loveless heart remained destitute. He was not established within the truth of his father’s love as his unworthy brother had been.

This is far more serious than it seems. Whilst his younger brother swallowed his pride, humbled himself, repented from believing lies, accepted the truth and came home, the elder brother would not forgive or love him and would rather he had died far away from the arms of his father. In his “I am” heart he had grasped equality with both God and his father, taken his father’s place and judged his brother as being worthy of death. Although outwardly he had been obedient to his father, in his heart he hated his unworthy brother. He had been deceived into believing deep down that somehow it would have been far better for him if his brother had died far-off despite that fact that his loving father daily longed for his wayward son to come home. In his heart he demanded what he considered justice – that his brother was condemned. By being unwilling to show mercy he himself could not receive mercy, by being unwilling to love, he could not receive his father’s love. Resentment ate away at his heart like a worm. The lie-inspired rage that he judged as the injustice of his father’s unconditional love for his brother but not him, continued to burn within him. By cursing his brother, he could not be redeemed by receiving his own fathers’ blessing. Jesus said that the merciful were blessed for they would be shown mercy. As long as the elder brother believed lies, he could not show mercy, he could not be blessed, and he could not see mercy even when it was there for him to receive. He chose to not be a true and merciful son or reflection of his merciful father and so he continued to grieve his father’s heart.

Jesus told this parable, amongst others, to the Scribes, Pharisees, and Teachers of the Law. In Israel, these Elders were in effect the elder brother. They despised the sick, demonised, and sinful, considering them outside of the blessing of God and under the Curse of the Law. They did not rejoice when Jesus, in his great mercy, brought the original gospel, or good news, of sight to the blind, freedom to the captives and bound wounds of the broken-hearted. They hated the people that Jesus loved. Even when these people repented, the unmerciful Elders would rather that these returning prodigals were dead. In the pride of their hearts they were expecting the Messiah, the Son of David, to come as a glorious and victorious conquering King, someone that they could be proud of and who would super-size their already over-stuffed egos. Believing the lie of their own hand-me-down religion of tradition instead of the absolute truth and love of the words of God’s fatherhood, they wanted the Messiah to end the humiliation of Roman occupation and rule. They wanted the Messiah to establish Israel as an independent nation once again preeminent in power and prestige amongst all the nations of the earth, with them at its puffed-up head. Jesus came to set them free from slavery to the lying breaths and flattery of the father of lies and the pride of their equality-to-God grasping self-idolatrous hearts not their Roman overlords. In the pride of their hearts they were offended by and despised Jesus the Son of David, the humble carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus, in his great mercy and unconditional love healed the sick, raised the dead, and told these unrepentant lie-believing, egotistical hypocrites, who had rejected God’s heart-changing blessing of their father Abraham, that they were whitewashed tombs, blind guides, a brood of vipers and sons of the devil.

It was these same Elders and teachers in Israel who a few months later would prove what Jesus said about them was true by demanding that Pilate have Jesus crucified to maintain their own sense of self-righteousness and Satan-inspired over-inflated opinion of themselves. Jesus loved them, he knew that they had been deceived and as he was crucified, he said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”. In 1 Kings 19, after defeating the prophets of Baal, the prophet Elijah fled from Jezebel and complained to God that the people of Israel had forsaken God’s covenant, thrown down God’s altars, killed the prophets and were coming after him. God’s “still small voice” reply to Elijah was quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:4 (KJV) “I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal”. Paul went on to say in Romans 11:5 “Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace”. It was on the Day of Pentecost that God answered Jesus’ prayer for God’s forgiveness for those who had shouted, “crucify Him” even though Pilate wanted to free the innocent Jesus. These “elder brothers” had rubbed their hands in glee and mocked as Jesus was stripped, shamed, beaten, and crucified. By an amazing act of sovereign grace many were humbled before God. They found themselves repenting of their lie-believing self-filled “I am” and “as god” hearts of pride and self-righteousness. Just like the prodigal son who “came to his senses”, repented and returned home to his father, by an incredible breath-taking sovereign act of God’s glorious and amazing grace, in their hearts they were inspired to come home. They were crowned with the anointing of overcoming victory and had truth believing hearts that were filled with, baptised or immersed into the living word of the incredible paradise or wonderment of the breath of God’s inspiring fatherhood, the Holy Spirit. That is why Paul says in Romans 8:28-30 (KJV) “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified”. It is the life’s breath or Holy Spirit of God’s fatherhood that conforms the Sons of God to bear the image or reflection of God in the way that they are inspired to behave. They live and walk in love because their Father is God and God dwells within their hearts. God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives within them (see 1 John 4:8). That is why it says in 1 John 3:1-2 (KJV) “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”. The truth of God’s living word of undeserved and unconditional love is from everlasting to everlasting. For the humble hearted who renounce and rebuke loveless lies and return into the loving arms of their true and everlasting Father, they live in that sunshine of bliss which no mortal can ever touch. This is the way of love.

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