Love - A Scriptural Study
By
Isaac Aluochier
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF
One should avoid hatred of another human being stemming from one’s heart. This implies that love for another human being should stem from or flow from one’s heart.
Part of loving another human being entails rebuking this human being whenever this human being needs a rebuke. This should assist this human being repent of the behaviour necessitating the rebuke. This implies that loving another human being entails doing all within one’s capability to assist the other human being conduct or live their life in the manner one ought to. Withholding of a rebuke when one is entailed shows a lack of care or concern or love for the human being requiring the rebuke. This lack of love or care or concern for another human being is equivalent to hating them in one’s heart, which is sin!
Therefore, in loving other human beings from our hearts, thereby avoiding hating them in our hearts, we should do all in our capacity to enable them to live or conduct their lives in the manner that they ought to, including correcting or rebuking them when they veer off track, so to speak.
Do Not Take Vengeance on Another
One should not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against another human being, for by so doing one is not loving them from one’s heart, but is in fact hating them in one’s heart. When one loves another human being one desires the best for this other human being and does whatever one is capable of to facilitate this other human being living their life in the manner they ought to. When the other has done wrong, the one rebukes the other, that the other may consider the error of his or her actions and repent of them, thereby returning to living life in the manner life ought to be lived. When the other has wronged one, the one forgives the wrong done to one, rebukes the other for the wrong done to one, and assists the other to remedy the wrong done to one, to facilitate the other living life in the manner that it ought to be lived.
Do Not Force Your Will on Another
I will suggest that the one can do only what one can do within the bounds of Yahweh’s law. One cannot, and should not, force one’s correct will on the other if the other is unwilling to listen to the rebuke or correction, and is unwilling to change the erroneous behaviour. In such scenarios what the one can do is to pray for the welfare of the other and hope that the other will see the error of the other’s ways and repent in the near future.
One should therefore pray for those who do wrong to one. This is loving the other, and is part of loving the other as one loves oneself. For the one is praying that the other may come to realise how life should be lived and commence living life in that manner, just as one hopes that one realises how life should be lived and that one hopes that one is living life in the manner that it should.
Yahweh’s requirements: fear him; walk in all his ways; love him; serve him with all your heart and soul; keep his commandments and his statutes.
Because of the blessings that Yahweh has given us, and because he continues to bless us, we should love Yahweh. Our love for Yahweh is therefore a reciprocation of the love Yahweh has already shown us and continues to show us.
By being obedient to Yahweh’s commandments of loving him and serving him with all our hearts and soul, he will honour and fulfil his conditional promises to us, of imparting additional blessings to us.
Loving Yahweh with all our heart and soul is synonymous with cleaving to Yahweh in walking after him, in fearing him, in keeping his commandments, in obeying his voice, in serving him and holding fast to him. It is synonymous with being faithful to Yahweh and to Yahweh alone, worshipping only Yahweh and not worshipping or serving another.
Yahweh does allow situations to arise in our lives whereby we are tempted to draw away from him. This he does to test whether we love him with our totality or not. We ought to love Yahweh with our totality. This means living by every word that proceeds out of his mouth.
Our Hearts Must be Circumcised
To have life we must love Yahweh with all our heart and soul.
To love Yahweh with our totality we must have our hearts circumcised - by Yahweh.
A circumcised heart is one that fully clings to Yahweh and serves Yahweh wholeheartedly. It is fully submissive to Yahweh, yielding to Yahweh in everything, whether commandments or statutes or anything coming from Yahweh.
Loving Yahweh with our totality is synonymous with having only Yahweh as our Mighty One, and serving only Yahweh. It does not allow for worship or service to any other entity.
Yahweh's Promise to Those who Love Him
A promise to those who love Yahweh: PRESERVATION. A promise to those who do not love Yahweh but are wicked: DESTRUCTION.
Be Perfect, Just as Your Father in Heaven is Perfect
In order to be sons of our Father in heaven we must do the following. We must love your enemies. We must bless those who curse us. We must do good to those who hate us. We must pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us. In other words, we must do good things to those who do not so do to us. In this we will be emulating the Father's perfect love.
Service to Yahweh should be to Yahweh and only to Yahweh. We should not delude ourselves that we can serve both Yahweh and some other entity, animate or not, living or dead, for it is impossible for one to serve two masters.
It appears that the
possession of love is an essential attribute prior to entry into the
Be Merciful, Just as Your Father is Merciful
Consequences of living the way of love include a great reward to be received in the future, and also becoming a child of the Most High.
A key aspect concerning the manner we ought to be living our lives is to emulate our Father in his dealings with human beings. For Yah'shuah admonished us to be merciful and kind and loving, just as the Father is merciful and kind and loving. Therefore, to live our lives in the manner we ought, we ought to emulate the Father’s ways in his dealings with human beings.
To inherit eternal life we must love Yahweh with our totality and also love our neighbours as we love ourselves, which also is a facet of loving Yahweh with our totality. For an aspect of loving Yahweh with our totality is doing everything that proceeds out of his mouth, including his command that we love our neighbours as we love ourselves.
Our neighbour is any human being other than ourselves, whether we know them or not, whether we have met them or not.
Having the Love of Yahweh Abiding in Us
To have the Father’s word
abiding in us we MUST believe him whom he sent, that is we MUST BELIEVE
Yah'shuah the Messiah. And not just believe in Yah'shuah the Messiah, believing
that Yah'shuah was the Messiah, but we must actually believe the words of
Yah'shuah the Messiah. If we do not believe the words of Yah'shuah we do not
have the Father’s word abiding in us!
To have eternal life we MUST GO TO YAH'SHUAH. It is not enough to just search the Scriptures. But we must act on the contents of the Scriptures and thereby GO TO YAH'SHUAH. For the Scriptures say that when that prophet like Moses arises from among the people of Israel, we must listen to whatever that prophet tells us to do, for that prophet like Moses will have been raised up by Yahweh himself (Devarim 18: 15-18).
To have the love of Yahweh abiding in us we MUST RECEIVE YAH'SHUAH, for he came in the Father’s name and was sent by the Father. If we refuse to receive Yah'shuah we do not have the love of Yahweh abiding in us!
To be a true disciple of Yah'shuah one must abide in his word, which includes not only believing his words, but also showing that belief by doing his words.
Those who are of Yahweh, who have Yahweh as their Father, hear Yahweh’s words. They hear and believe the words of Yah'shuah, for Yah'shuah's words were given to him by Yahweh for mankind. Those who do not believe Yah'shuah words, who do not believe Yahweh’s words, who do not believe the truth, for Yahweh’s word is truth, are of another father, the devil, in whom is no truth and who is the father of lies.
The scenario is very simple and clear. One is either of Yahweh or is of the devil. Those who are of Yahweh believe his words, and believe Yah'shuah's words, which are words the Father gave him to speak, and have Yah'shuah's words abiding in them. Those who do not accept the words of Yah'shuah are of the devil. These do not love Yah'shuah and therefore do not have the love of Yahweh abiding in them.
To Live Forever Keep Yah'shuah's Word
Those who keep Yah'shuah's word will never see death - the second death, the permanent death. The first death is merely temporary, nothing more than just a long sleep from which one will be woken up. (In fact, one could say that of all humans who have ever lived, no one has really died, gone through the second and permanent death. Those who have gone through the first death are merely asleep, and will be woken out of their slumber at appropriate times in the future. The time for the second and permanent death is still in the future!)
The Father loved Yah'shuah because he lay down his life for his sheep, that he may take it again. To have the Father love us in the manner he loved Yah'shuah, we should likewise lay down our lives in a manner consistent with Yahweh’s will. And we, too, will be able to have life again, for Yah'shuah promised that those who keep his word would never see death - the second and permanent death. Therefore, by keeping Yah'shuah's word, and laying down our lives in a manner consistent with Yah'shuah's words, we will only be entering into a temporary state of sleep, from which we shall be awakened, never to see death subsequently, having eternal life thenceforth!
Love One Another As Yah'shuah Loved Us
We are to love one another, love other disciples, in the manner Yah'shuah loved and loves his disciples. By so succeeding in manifesting this love will others take note that we truly are Yah'shuah's disciples. It is therefore imperative that Yah'shuah's disciples study the manner he loved and loves his disciples and emulate his example.
Our keeping of Yah'shuah's commandments manifests our love for him.
To receive the Spirit of truth, another Helper, we must love Yah'shuah and show this love by our keeping his words. This is a condition for receiving the Spirit of truth in us!
Have and Keep Yah'shuah's Words
We love Yah'shuah ONLY WHEN we have his commandments and keep them. It is therefore imperative that all who desire to have eternal life have Yah'shuah's commandments and, secondly, keep them. Both the Father and Yah'shuah will love those who love Yah'shuah by having his commandments and keeping them, and Yah'shuah will manifest himself to them.
The manner of this manifestation will be by both the Father and Yah'shuah loving such individuals and both coming to them and making their home with them.
One who loves the Father does all of the Father’s commandments to one, including submitting one’s life to temporary death - which in reality is just prolonged sleep until one’s resurrection to life. This is demonstration of one’s love for the Father.
Do Whatever Yah'shuah Commands You
The manner we are to love one another is the same manner Yah'shuah loved us, by laying down our lives for our friends, who should be those who do what Yah'shuah commands that they should do. This includes laying down our physical lives for them, just as he laid his physical life for us.
Yah'shuah considered his disciples as his friends for he revealed to them all that he heard from his Father. Likewise, the people Yah'shuah gives us should also be our friends. We should likewise reveal to them all that Yah'shuah reveals to us.
There is no way one can love the Father without likewise loving Yah'shuah.
The Vital Importance of the Declaration of the
Father's Name
Unity among believers in both the Father and Yah'shuah is crucial, for this is a sign that shows or witnesses to the world that the Father sent Yah'shuah.
What is the glory that the Father gave Yah'shuah, which he in turn gave to his disciples, to enable them to be one just as the Father and Yah'shuah are one? The Father's Holy Spirit?
Another purpose of unity among believers in Yah'shuah is for witnessing to the world that the Father loves us in the same manner as He loves Yah'shuah.
It is also important to note that Yah'shuah declared to his disciples the Father’s name - Yahweh - that Yahweh’s love may be in the disciples, and that Yah'shuah also may be in the disciples. In other words, without Yahweh’s name being declared to us there is no guarantee that Yahweh’s love will reside in us, and also no guarantee that Yah'shuah himself will reside in us. It is therefore imperative for those who desire to have the Father’s love - Yahweh’s love - residing in them, and also desire to have Yah'shuah residing in them, to have Yahweh’s name declared to them.
Declaration of Yahweh’s name to one, and, by extension, acceptance of Yahweh’s name by one, is essential for one’s salvation by Yahweh. For only those who have Yahweh’s love in them, and have Yah'shuah in them, will be saved!
Demonstrate Your Love for Yah'shuah
The demonstration of Kefa’s love for Yah'shuah was by his obedience to Yah'shuah's words, of feeding and tending his lambs and sheep. A further demonstration of Kefa’s love for Yah'shuah was Yah'shuah's requirement for him to lay down his life, this temporary physical life, for the glorification of Yahweh, and Kefa complying with this requirement.
In other words, just as Yah'shuah showed his love for the Father by laying down his temporary life, because the Father required it of him, so also Kefa was required by Yah'shuah to show his love for Yah'shuah by laying down his life for him. Success in this requirement allowed Kefa to manifest the greatest possible love for Yah'shuah, his friend, which he could have manifested, for Yah'shuah himself said that no greater love existed than for a person to lay down his life for his friends. Likewise, when our friend Yah'shuah requires us to lay down our lives for his sake, we should willingly do so, thereby manifesting the greatest possible love we could show for Yah'shuah the Messiah.
[It should be noted that this laying down of one’s life for the sake of Yah'shuah should not really be such a big deal. For in reality all one is doing is allowing oneself to go into prolonged sleep, from which Yah'shuah the Messiah will awake one.
Nevertheless, it calls for faith in Yah'shuah the Messiah. That is, knowing assuredly that he will truly honour his word and raise one to everlasting life at one’s appointed time for such resurrection. This is something one does for one’s friend, whom one trusts and has full confidence in, both in ability and character.]
The Love of Yahweh in Our Hearts
It is the Holy Spirit of Yahweh that pours in our hearts the love of Yahweh.
How Things Work for Those Who Love Yahweh
Will Something Separate Us from the Love of
Yahweh?
Actions and words and thoughts that do no harm to one's neighbour are the fulfilment of the law. Such actions, words and thoughts are summed up in the word "love".
Penalty for Not Loving Yah'shuah the Messiah
It is therefore imperative that if one is to avoid having this specific curse on one, one should love Yah'shuah the Messiah, entirely submitting to him with his or her entire totality, doing everything that proceeds from the Messiah’s mouth, and having the Messiah as one’s one and only master.
To Avoid Condemnation, Love the Truth
Those to be deceived by the lawless one, those to perish, are those who do not love the truth, thereby forsaking salvation! It is because of their abhorrence of the truth that Yahweh will allow a strong delusion to fall upon them, enabling them to believe the lie, that they may all be condemned. These are those who abhor the truth and take pleasure in unrighteousness.
Are the salvation, perishing and condemnation mentioned here the ultimate ones, or are they of the first merely temporary phase? The context suggests that the salvation, perishing and condemnation mentioned here have permanent lasting effects! In other words, the context appears to suggest that those who hate the truth will be irretrievably condemned and perish with no hope of everlasting life!
Those who endure temptation are those who love Yahweh.
Love Yahweh Entirely, Not Partially
The promises from Yahweh are to those who love him.
Showing of partiality is not in harmony with loving one’s neighbour as oneself.
Either one loves Yahweh in entirety, or not at all. One cannot choose which aspects of Yahweh’s commands to submit to and which ones to be unsubmissive to. It is all or nothing! The one who fails to submit to some of Yahweh’s words, choosing to submit only to a portion of his words, might as well not have bothered to attempt to submit to the portion he or she chooses to submit to. Such an individual is not fully submissive to Yahweh, and does not really have Yahweh as his or her mighty one, but probably has his or her own head as his or her own mighty one. For such an individual presumes superior wisdom over Yahweh’s wisdom to decide which aspects of Yahweh’s words are appropriate to be submitted to and which one’s are not. This is great arrogance on the part of such an individual, and such individuals will have no part in the promised blessings to those who love Yahweh. Such partially submissive individuals, better described as unsubmissive individuals, love only themselves and do not love Yahweh.
The manner one purifies one’s soul is by obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren. One should therefore sincerely and fervently love the brethren.
Sin is to be avoided, and the word or commandments of Yahweh are to be kept. For this is how the love of Yahweh abides in us.
Our focus should be on
permanent things rather than on temporary transient things. Our pursuit of
things should be for those that are permanent, rather than for temporary
transient ones. We should therefore pursue the
But one could argue that man is only a temporary and transient being, whose existence is finite. Why should he therefore waste time and effort pursuing permanent things, when he only has a temporary existence, and will therefore not be able to enjoy those permanent things after the cessation of his life? Instead, should not man just focus his energies on things with an existence not exceeding his life span?
The point of pursuing the permanent things, specifically the kingdom of Yahweh, is that by so pursuing and being granted entry into this kingdom, man will cease to be a temporary entity, and will from thenceforth be a permanent entity, with everlasting life span from thence. He will therefore be able to enjoy the permanent things of the kingdom of Yahweh.
In other words, man has an opportunity of being granted immortality. He has a choice of taking the path that leads to immortality or that which leads to certain and complete cessation of life permanently. Man has that choice.
Therefore, pursuing permanent lasting things, specifically the kingdom of Yahweh, is not a misplaced or wasted course. Rather, it is the very key to man’s life - everlasting life. Not pursuing this course leads to certain death, making one’s life a pretty meaningless affair with no tangible results.
Practice Righteousness and Love the
Brethren
It is crucially important that we love the brethren, with sincerity, fervency and deeds. For by so doing we become effectively immortal, even though the actual prior change to immortality has yet to be effected.
There is an element of faith here, whereby those who love the brethren, in sincerity, fervency and deeds, know assuredly that they have already been granted everlasting life, and are only awaiting their formal conversion into immortal state from this temporary transient state they currently are in.
How does one confess that Yah'shuah is the Son of Yahweh? By merely reciting words to that effect? Or is more involved? Such as loving Yahweh with one’s entire totality, which includes being fully submissive to Yah'shuah the Messiah, for Yahweh has made him head of all of us, thereby living by every word proceeding from Yah'shuah's mouth? I think the latter.
Perfect Love Casts Out Fear of Death
Which Day of Judgment is Yahchanan referring to over here? The one after death or the one the world will go through prior to the return of Yah'shuah the Messiah, otherwise known as the great tribulation and the day of Yahweh? I think the one after death.
Perfect love casts out even the fear of death - whether the first death, the temporary one, or the second death, the permanent one.
Perfect love is synonymous with having faith that one already has eternal life abiding in one, via the Holy Spirit, and that it is only a matter of time before one’s state is changed from mortal to immortal. Therefore, if such a one is faced with the prospect of the first death, that first death prospect should not bother one in the least, for one has complete confidence in Yahweh that one will be resurrected back to life by him, and this time to everlasting life. In fact, as far as one’s consciousness is concerned, that very act of first death will instantaneously bring one to everlasting life, for in one’s next moment of consciousness one will be in a resurrection of the dead, the first resurrection. This applies whether the prospect of first death is a violent one, such as will occur to the saints during the great tribulation, or whether it is a more peaceful one, for example death in sleep in one’s old age.
The second death should also not bother one, for one made perfect in love knows that he or she will not see the second death, but will be given immortality upon the return of Yah'shuah the Messiah to rule this earth.
Therefore, what is there to fear in death - for one made perfect in love? Nothing - absolutely nothing!
Love Yahweh and Love Your Brother
Loving Yahweh entails being fully submissive and obedient to Yahweh with our totality. One of Yahweh’s commandments is that we love our neighbours as we love ourselves. Everyone loves oneself, as evidenced by the normal physical care and concern for oneself. When one does not love one’s neighbour, including one’s brother, as one loves oneself, one is not being obedient to Yahweh. By not being obedient to Yahweh in this or any other matter one does not love Yahweh, for one is not being submissive or obedient to him. Therefore, one who does not love his brother or neighbour does not love Yahweh.
Love Yahweh and Keep His Commandments
Walk According to Yahweh's Commandments
What is the doctrine of Messiah? The entirety of the teaching of Yah'shuah the Messiah, including his coming in the flesh?
Our initial love for Yahweh and the Messiah should never wane.
The sword Yah'shuah the Messiah brought - His word - would have the effect of setting members of one’s own household against one, making those members of one’s own household one’s enemies. For by one loving Yah'shuah the Messiah more than one loves the members of one’s own household, so showing this greater love one has for Yah'shuah by abiding by and doing Yah'shuah's words even when it is against or opposed to those of the members of one’s own household, one’s own household members will become one’s enemies. For Yah'shuah's words will have been regarded more by one than the words of the members of one’s own household.
It is in this context that Yah'shuah states that the one who loves the members of one’s own household more than the one loves Yah'shuah is not worthy of Yah'shuah. And comparative love for Yah'shuah must not just be greater than the love shown to one’s own household, but must also be greater than that love which one shows oneself! In other words, one must love Yah'shuah and do his words even when these militate against one own desires.
Yah'shuah's words, which in reality are Yahweh’s words, for Yah'shuah simply conveys Yahweh’s words, are supreme, and therefore supersede our own words and those of the members of our households.
Trust No Human; Not Even Your Wife. Trust Only
Yahweh.
Do Not Be Ashamed of Yah'shuah and His Words
We should follow Yah'shuah and follow Him, follow His example and die to our life in this world, so showing our hatred for it. We can be confident, in faith, that by so doing we will for eternity have life, for Yahweh, Yah'shuah's Father, will honour us.
This is Yahweh’s love, that we follow Yah'shuah in everything, even in death - whereby we die to our life in this world, that we may have life for eternity.
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