AmericanSubmission

What does love mean?

What does it mean to love someone or something?

Most of us would describe love first as an intense emotion or feeling of endearment toward someone or something. Most of us would describe loving a person or thing then in very subjective, emotion-driven terms.

And most of us would therefore be very, very wrong.

Love – as all other concepts at the heart of human understanding and life – is only rightly defined by Scripture.

When we begin to define or understand a term as important as love anywhere but Scripture, we are beginning in darkness. And when we begin in that darkness using our feelings as a primary guide, well…it only gets worse from there.

So it is that ever-increasing darkness has become the norm in America.

Through generations of purposeful separation from Truth by way of everything from State-controlled “education” to Corporate-controlled pop-culture, we have been systematically encouraged to embrace and nurture a subjective, self-referential, emotion- and feeling-driven understanding of love (and everything else).

For more liberal, leftist, or openly pagan types, this self-defined, self-serving “love” touches, defines, and fundamentally corrupts the things most dear to their unbelieving hearts. So it is that everything from rank sexual perversion to open appeals to Statism are all advocated in the name of “love”.

For conservative types, including a great many professing Christians who regularly attend the most conservative of “Bible believing” churches, their self-defined, self-serving “love” tends to inspire idolatry of things like America and patriotism itself. One interesting (and revealing) bit of overlap between these folks and their leftists brothers and sisters is that they too, in the name of their “love” of country, end up as open advocates of Statism. They definitely prefer that it be a Republican-led Statism, but it is Statism nonetheless.

In this, both conservative and liberal unbelievers (many of whom claim Christianity) become passionate advocates of things like “freedom” and “liberty”, all defined and understood through the anti-Christian foundation upon which they are built. So the Left and the Right end up championing many of the same terms, all of which are equally (though differently) distinct from their biblical presentation.

The reason for this rather profound overlap between the Left and Right secular views is that they have been born of the same rebellion. They have been built upon the same fundamental rejection of Christ as Lord in practice right here and right now in every realm of His creation…including language, politics, economics, and education.

Once an understanding or definition of love, patriotism, America, or anything else is severed from an explicit connection to Christ as its essential-life-preserving core, then that thing becomes dead and death to all that it touches.

So what does this tell us about true love?

How do we truly love a person, or a group of people like America?

How do we practice God-honoring (and therefore life-preserving) patriotism, politics, economics, and education?

Well, the good news is that there is a simple, clear answer: We begin by actively subjecting our understanding of all things things to the nature of Christ as revealed in His Word.

We must begin with Christ.

Purposefully.

Clearly.

Publicly.

Always.

We really and truly must begin and remain centered on Christ personally if we are to ever find true, lasting beauty, peace, and prosperity in any realm of His creation.

However much we may be ignorant, unsure, or confused when it comes to details, we must openly, publicly, and persistently begin every significant pursuit of understanding by making a direct appeal to Christ as personally revealed in His perfect Word.

That is the essential first step to understanding, and then pursuing, true love for a person or a people.

And that is the one step that every secular so-called “conservative”, liberal and libertarian source, expert, and prognosticator will always dutifully strive to avoid (and steer us away from) at all costs.

They will not submit to the lordship of Christ.

This really couldn’t be more clear or obvious – just tune in to CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin or any number of other cogs in the controlled, contrived “conservative”/liberal media machine. They are all ultimately and always aimed at what all satanic/secular thought advocates: Distraction from Christ as the essential personal core of life (or any part of it).

And to this we must say, “no.”

And, “repent”.

We must lovingly confront this widespread, culture-killing rebellion with the Gospel of Jesus Christ the King.

That is love.

That is the truly loving thing to do.

And it will require from each of us first, by God’s grace, a personal desire to repent of our propagation of the satanic worldview that is now strangling the culture before our eyes.

We have enabled and adored this beast.

We have played its game…and loved playing it.

We have failed to hold the realms of language, politics, economics, and education close to Christ as their essential life-giver, and in our failure we have promoted the death of each of those things.

We have led America to darkness.

We have ruined patriotism through our idolatry of America.

We have much to repent of before we can lead this land and its people to resurrection through the Gospel-fueled Great Commission, but the great news is that this is exactly why our Lord has placed us in this place and at this time.

We are here for great purpose. We have before us now the opportunity to repent of our idolatry and destroy our idols as a leading example, so that we might through our grace-fueled obedience inspire others to do the same and actually, truly save this culture…one supernatural salvation at a time.

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With this incredible (and most challenging) situation in mind, please consider the following passages:

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? ~ Matthew 16:24-26

 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” ~ Matthew 10:34-39 (bold emphasis added)

We are here and now in this desperate hour to proclaim and apply the truth that salvation is only possible through the person of Christ the King.

That salvation covers everything in His creation, right on down to the language.

We are here to save “love” from perversion.

We are here to save “patriotism” from corruption.

We are here to save America from death.

And we are here to save those things by bringing them to Him; by subjecting them to His loving authority and life-giving perfection. We are here to demonstrate and advocate that everything, including our patriotism, is to be subject to the lordship of Christ the King.

We are here to learn together, by God’s grace, what that means in detail as we study and submit to Him along the ongoing path of sanctification, but we are all obligated to openly, publicly, and relentlessly begin every serious pursuit of every serious subject by striving to publicly, purposefully define it in light of the Person of Christ as revealed in His perfect Word.

So when we are told that anti-Christian approaches to education, politics, economics, or love are “just the way the world works” or “what we have to put up with here”, we must lovingly and clearly confront that contention and correct it in light of the Word of God.

This is our Great Commission:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ~ Matthew 28:18-20 (bold emphasis added)

This is how we rightly love.

This is how we can actually and truly save America, by God’s grace, for His glory, and to our eternal benefit.

And there is no other way

…and we of all people, as Christians, shouldn’t want it any other way.

There is a culture raging, burning, and dying all around us, filled with people in desperate need of loving confrontation and correction through the Gospel-fueled Great Commission.

May God grace His people with the desire and opportunity to lead the way to Him through personal repentance and obedience in every realm of life right here and right now…while there is yet time.

~

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© 2015 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.
Soli Deo Gloria!

One Response

  1. I appreciate your overarching theme that the cultural calamity has been brought on by the church's failure to embrace and apply ALL of God's Word to every area of life. But, have you covered the fact that most pastors don't go near, much less actually pray, imprecatory prayers? If there's an article about it, please tell me. Thanks.

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