A Crossless Love

“Freedom has a taste to those who fight and almost die, that the protected will never know.”

– written on the wall of a POW camp

It was not long ago that I had called up a guitar player to see if he would get out on the road with us to do a couple of shows to reach out to the next generation. He said to me that he did not want to hurt his reputation by association with a group that is a lightning rod concerning the state-run media (Philippians 2:7).

Of course, he was a self-professed Christian, but failed to remember that those that “live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12).” We are also appointed unto “afflictions” (1 Thessalonians 3:3) and we will be “hated by all men” for Christ’s sake (Mark 13:13).

Somewhere along the way, he must have blinked not to have been engaged in the uproars, tumults, persecutions and trials that fell on those who faithfully served Christ Jesus in the book of Acts, while undoing the works of darkness.

I said to him, “How can you love your freedoms so much (John 8:36) that you are not willing to fight for them?”

What could he say? He was simply guilty as hell for remaining a part of the problem I see on a daily basis in this country.

People like this have no idea of the love that was demonstrated not only by Jesus Christ on the cross (John 3:16), but also our forefathers during the Revolutionary War, to establish the longest-standing Constitution in modern history.

It’s no mystery why “iniquity will abound” in the last days. It’s because “the love of many will wax cold (Matthew 24:12).” But why is that? It’s because they do not know what love is. Love is the fulfilling of the Law of God. However, they want absolutely nothing to do with that law (Galatians 5:14). Yet, it is to be in their hearts and in their minds (Hebrews 10:16).

A love that does not magnify the law against crime (sin) in the light of sacrifice, both in the natural and the spiritual, is no love at all (Psalm 40:8, Ephesians 5:11).

A real love fights to “seek and save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10) and to reconcile a sinful world to God the Father through the sacrifice of His Son (Romans 5:10).

Now, understand, friends, that I am not angry with this guy because he was MIA when it came time to putting his profession to action. I was simply offended at the fact that he was ignorant and shameless about his empty profession and version of love, which was found only in lip service (Matthew 15:8; James 2:26).

My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18)

To the degree that you are thankful for the sacrifice given on your behalf, will be the degree that you live for what they died to give (John 15:13, 2 Corinthians 5:15).

There is freedom nowhere in this world where there was not first the Gospel preached and a sacrifice unto God and Man bestowed (1 John 3:16).

Video: “The Jesus Loves You Gospel?”

Video: “The Price”