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February 2024 Love is defined in various ways here in American society, but it has become akin to making accommodation for whatever anyone else wants to be or whatever anyone else wants to do. That is how love is defined to the American.
And this is nothing new. If you study the history of man – he has been adept at defining, or redefining, “love” in some way other than how the Lord defines love in Holy Scripture. And sadly, American Christianity has adopted, to a great extent, the world’s view and definition of “love.”
If someone is offended by what you say, that is viewed as not being “loving.” In fact, that is the paramount tenet of this definition of love by our society – to not accommodate yourself to whatever someone wants to be or to whatever someone wants to do is the greatest sin. “Love” accommodates all.
And this is a distortion of love. Distortion is the action of giving a misleading account or impression. And that is what American society and American Christianity have done to love. They dispel and dispense a misleading account or impression of love.
And their distortion allows evil to proliferate. The distortion of love aids and abets the proliferation of evil in society.
Under the guise and proffering of “love” we have hid ourselves from confronting evil.
Under the guise and proffering of “love” we have decided to stand still off to the side and let evil proliferate.
As Tolkien asked in The Hobbit – “When did we allow evil to be stronger than us?” Or, another way of saying it: “How did we allow evil to become so strong?”
This is how. Many view resistance to evil as unloving. This is the presupposition that fuels the ability for evil to proliferate in the land. And it is taught by the bulk mass of pulpits in America.
Understand, the road to hell is paved with a thousand “kindnesses.” With wanting to be nice. With wanting to be liked and to fit in. With wanting to not offend.
Many view resistance to evil as unloving. But the truth is, love does not negate resistance to evil. True biblical love does not legitimize silence in the face of evil.
Love and resistance to evil are not contrary to one another (as most of American Christianity wants you to believe). It is not an either/or. In fact, love most often demands confrontation with evil; taking the evil to task – in the right way, given what the situation may be of how evil is demonstrated.
Evil must be spoken against and it must have action taken against it.
Biblical love does not teach the world’s view or definition of love — that one must accommodate to whatever anyone else wants to be or whatever anyone else wants to do.
Biblical love is defined by — yes — the Bible. Scripture teaches us what love is; it teaches us how to love God and it teaches us how to love our neighbor.
The law and Word of God teach us how to truly love our neighbor. The law and Word of God teach us what is right and wrong, what is good and evil.
If you define love outside of Scripture, you can use “love” to justify anything; you can accommodate anything. And that is what evil men and dupes in our society are doing in order to sell their evil — they peddle it under the guise of “love.”
Biblical love — God’s love — is not all-accommodating to whatever someone wants to be or all-accommodating to what someone wants to do. God’s love has limits. Biblical love has limits. How do we know love has limits? Because of the Scriptures themselves.
For example, 1 John 2:15 states: “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” That right there — “do not love” — shows biblical love has limits; love is not how the world has defined it as all-accommodating to whatever someone wants to be or wants to do.
It goes on to say, “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.”
Love is defined by Scripture and what we are to love and not love is defined by Scripture.
Psalm 97:10 states, “You who love the Lord – hate evil!” Love is not all-accommodating. Scripture shows us what we are to love and what we are to hate. God’s law and Word shows us what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil. God’s Word, for example, tells us homosexual acts are evil. So when the world tries to sell such perversion under the guise of love, we have a duty as God’s people to speak against it and act against it.
Listen, no one is called by Scripture to love evil. The Scriptures call upon us to do the exact opposite. We are to hate the evil. We are to resist the evil. By how we conduct our lives and by proclamation of His law and Word with our mouths.
Did not the prophets confront the evil of child sacrifice? Did not the prophets confront the evil of idolatry? Did they not confront the evil of kings and tyrants? Of businessmen and churchmen? Did not Abraham confront the evil of his family being stolen? Did not Asa and Jehoshaphat confront the evil of the sodomites? Did not Jesus confront the evil of the money-changers? Did not He confront the evil of the Scribes and Pharisees? Of the lawyers? Of Herod?
Did not John the Baptist confront the evil of Herod? Did not Paul confront the evil of the silversmiths exploiting the people with their little silver shrines of Diana? Did he not confront the evil of Elymas?
Did not the early church confront the evil of the colosseum? Did not Basil confront the evil of infanticide? Did not Amy Carmichael confront the evil of child prostitution in the temples of India? Did not tens of thousands of Christians confront the evil of abortion by interposing at the doors of America’s deathcamps?
No one is called by Scripture to love evil. The Scriptures call upon us to do the exact opposite. We are to hate the evil. We are to resist the evil. Both by how we conduct our lives – and by proclamation of His law and Word with our mouths.
To say we should never resist evil becomes an evil in itself – as such teaching proliferates evil in the land. To say we should not resist evil is what is “unloving.” To say we should never resist evil becomes a treason against God and a betrayal of neighbor.
Is it proper to, in the name of love, not resist evil to betray the weak to the wicked? To, in the name of love, not resist evil to expose someone else’s cheek to an attacker? To, in the name of love, not resist evil and allow wicked men to burn down churches, plant atheism, and destroy the nation? To, in the name of love, not resist evil but instead, stand by while children have their genitals mutilated and their minds corrupted?
The truth is, it is precisely LOVE which compels us to resist evil. The two are not at odds with one another as American Christianity and American society would have you believe. We understand that confronting and opposing evil are acts of love in themselves.
Love for God and love for neighbor are precisely what motivates and compels us to resist evil when it raises its ugly head. Our hatred for evil also compels us. We cannot sit by in indifference, blithely chalking it up to our prophesy charts or the sovereignty of God – all used wrongly to justify indifference. Rather, we are bothered when we see His law or Word being impugned by men or the governments of men. We must speak and we must act – and we can do no other.
Do not allow yourself to be neutralized by this distortion of love by American society. Do not allow the churchmen and “Christians” of American Christianity to lull you to indifference and complacency when evil is present and harming many.
May Christ be praised.
Matthew Trewhella is the pastor of Mercy Seat Christian Church (MercySeat.net). He and his wife, Clara, have eleven children and 35 grandchildren, and reside in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. He is the founder of the organization MissionariesToThePreborn.com and of the think-tank DefyTyrants.com.
If you would like to hear the sermon “The Distortion of Love and The Proliferation of Evil in America,” you can do so at SermonAudio.com https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=1312417482974 or go to the Mercy Seat Christian Church channel at YouTube.
