We’ve all heard the mantra “Love is Love.” The world has redefined what love is and it didn’t come from the Bible. The Bible says God is love and God defined love. It’s time we take a stand and take back the truth according to theWord of God.

Our world has redefined what God created, love, gender, freedom even!

We were all born into sin, BUT we all have a choice to walk away from that and be willing to change and transform our hearts and mind to the things of God! We alone can’t make anything righteous! GOD alone is righteous!

1 John 4:16b –“God is love! Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them.”

We see the phrase “Love is love” and it makes us stop and think – has that phrase encompassed loving everything, including sin? And if we take a stand against sin and calling it out, does that make us hateful?? Judgmental?

1 Corinthians 2:15– “But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.”

We have become a generation so laxed in the things of God that we have turned a blind eye and somehow have an obligation to make sure everyone is included and accepted, even if that compromises Godliness.

Lust of the flesh, abortion…So many of these issues have become tolerated in our society because we go by the phrase “Love is Love,” and that has enabled us to somehow feel “right” about allowing some sin in so others won’t feel left out. But what does God say about these things and why have we become so afraid to voice them?

I think the first step is we need to be clear about what Love is by the Creator of Love! The famous verse:

John 3:16 -17– “ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

I John 4:7-8– “Those who are loved by God, let his love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.”

Our society confuses love and lust.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7-Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.”

Life Application Study Bible Concordance

“Our society confuses love and lust. Unlike lust, God’s kind of  love is directed outward toward others, not inward toward ourselves. It is utterly unselfish. This kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is possible to practice this kind of love only if God helps us set aside our own desires and instincts, so that we can give love while expecting nothing in return. Thus the more we become like Christ, the more love we will show to others.”

Yes, God is love and we are called to love everyone and we do!! But we are not called to love sin! We are called to spread the love of Jesus so that everyone who knows is accountable for their own walk. Unfortunately, there is a heaven and a hell. God never created hell for people! Hell was solely created for Satan and his demons. But by our own selfish desire to choose life contrary to the Word of God, we submit ourselves to hell.

When looking at 1 Corinthians 13:4-7– we see that love isn’t a feeling. Love is an action! It’s all about DOING something, not “feeling” something! First you CHOOSE, then you act!

Love isn’t a feeling and that’s where we get it wrong sometimes. We think it’s our right to love who and what we want to, what we feel like. Our generation is all about rights- we demand more rights, more freedom to do what WE want! We believe women have the “right” to choose over their own bodies! But don’t you know our bodies belong to Christ if you dwell in Christ? It’s not our choice, it’s God’s!! God is the one who chooses life and death, yet we have become little god’s choosing for ourselves and then wondering why everything is going wrong! We have become so self focused, that we are not God focused! We were not created to live according to our flesh – in fact we are instructed to kill our fleshly desires!! However, we have taken the liberties of God and sacrificed them for lies.

Love is a choice! It’s hard, often painful even. We don’t always want to choose what is right because it doesn’t feel good! If we all walked around serving our fleshly desires and demanding to live life as WE want and feel, we would be in such a dangerous position. Love is longevity in a world of temporal. And Jesus was our greatest example of choosing love for us as He chose to die on the cross and take on our sins. That didn’t “feel” good!

Love actually isn’t all romance and rainbows. We see love displayed contrary to the Word of God and we just say, “Well let them be happy!” It’s all about what we want! We have turned God’s selfless love into something so selfish. God created love and He created it to free us, not enslave us to sin.

1 Peter 1:13-16So then, prepare your hearts and minds for action! Stay alert and fix your hope firmly on the marvelous grace that is coming to you. For when Jesus Christ is unveiled a greater measure of grace will be released to you. As God’s obedient children, never again shape your lives by the desires that you followed when you didn’t know better.Instead, shape your lives to become like the Holy One who called you. For Scripture says:

“You are to be holy, because I am holy.”

John 14:15– “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

We can’t pick and choose what we want from the bible. We can’t take only the things we agree with and disregard the rest.

Revelations 22:18– “I testify to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone subtracts from the prophetic words of this book, God will remove his portion from the Tree of Life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.”

The problem we have in our world is we look at people as the enemy. We have only one enemy – satan and his demons. We fight with weapons of this world, accomplishing nothing because our war is not with flesh and blood. Our war is not against people, but against sin…

Ephesians 6:13-15– “Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage. Because of this, you must wear all the armor that God provides so you’re protected as you confront the slander for you are destined for all things and will rise victorious.”

We are a divided nation. We point fingers and are hateful with people who don’t agree with us. The bible tells us to be angry, but do not sin. We have spoken truth but with out love. Jesus was our example of love, in action, not feeling! Like scripture says, we don’t judge people! We love everyone – yes!! But we hate the sin!!

Love is not about accepting all things and compromising, sacrificing God’s Word so that people feel good in their sin. The Word is going to rub us the wrong way. It can even feel offensive, but the Word says below:

1 Corinthians 2:14– “Someone living on an entirely human level rejects the revelations of God’s Spirit, for they make no sense to him. He can’t understand the revelations of the Spirit because they are only discovered by the illumination of the Spirit.”

Romans 8:7-9– “In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction, because it cannot!  For no matter how hard they try, God finds no pleasure with those who are controlled by the flesh. But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life, you are not dominated by the flesh but by the Spirit. In fact, the mind-set focused on the flesh fights God’s plan and refuses to submit to his direction because it cannot! For no matter how hard they try, God finds no pleasure with those who are controlled by the flesh. But when the Spirit of Christ empowers your life you are not dominated by the flesh but by the Spirit. And if you are not joined to the Spirit of the Anointed One, you are not of him. And if you are not joined to the Spirit of the Anointed One, you are not of him.”

The time is now more than ever to walk in truth, reliant on the Holy Spirit, not our flesh. We must be willing to sacrifice and endure persecution for the sake of the gospel. We must take a stand for righteousness with boldness and courage, fearing only God and not man!