Studying God’s Word ping
Amen!
Not possible to fake love to a lover.
So many of the very religious seem to think they can.
We never see an identity statement in the bible quite like “God is love.” We see many adjective attributions to God such as holy, just, merciful, loyal, and longsuffering, and theologians give us other words like omnipotent and omniscient, but this is a notable case of equating God to a noun.
The inexorable conclusion: Clothing with love, seems to be far too little. We all know the figure of speech “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Clothing is not enough. Infusing with love is the only thing that will do.
P.S. Not to call clothing a bad thing... it is an accommodation to our still fallen condition and it’s as old as the Garden... and it’s a reminder of what we should be looking like... but it is only a step on the way to what we need to be, and what follows can only be administered by the Lord as we permit it to infuse us further and further. That’s why we see scriptural statements like letting love be without hypocrisy.
As a result of my reading prayerfully, and praying scripturally, I enjoy daily guidance from God. So yes, everything must pass through the filter of scripture. But there ought to be personal revelation, such as Peter and Paul received from the Lord (e.g., the vision of the sheet and the vision that there would be no loss of life on the ship), that bears directly on an individual's ministry.
Someone might say, "Yeah, but that was before the close of the NT canon." But I would say that Peter and Paul's experiences with God's specific guidance forms a highly scriptural template for guidance I may expect in my life, today. I don't see why it wouldn't. Notwithstanding that I see John Macarthur quoting "if there be prophecies, they shall cease", I don't see adequate context for that to mean it has ceased already. I see that as a future event.
I have heard exponents of Macarthur's view say that "when that which is perfect is come" refers to the concluding of the assembly of the final canon of scripture. But I see a much better fulfillment of "that which is perfect is come" than that: I see it as yet future, when the Lord Jesus Christ Himself returns to planet Earth. Now that will be perfect! And I see that as the obvious fulfillment of the 1 Cor. 13 prophecy.
But I also realize there are varied opinions on this matter, and different theological disciplines; and I don't want these distinctives to divide us into amputated body parts. One day, we will no longer just "know in part"; knowledge will be transparent.
We know how John MacArthur interprets prophecy in relation to love. He says, despite such warnings as Rev. 14:9-11, Christians can take the mark of the beast and still be saved.
His problem is he is a pre-trib dispensationalist. He himself it going to get taken out in a pretrib rapture, those “left behind” are going to have to deal with the antichrist, his image, and his mark. Not him. And to show you how much love he has, he says believers in Christ during those times, since they love Christ, can take the mark of the beast and be saved.