Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD . . . .”
Hosea 6:3
The key to coming to love God is coming to know Him. It is impossible to know God without loving Him, and the only reason anyone, anywhere, does not love God is ignorance. Only they who do not know God’s heart and His ways do not love Him.
This emphasizes the importance of God’s people being taught the truth. If God’s people are taught wrong ideas about their heavenly Father, they may struggle, sometimes desperately, to love Him. In their hearts, none of God’s people love the god of Christianity, but because they have been taught that the god of Christianity is their God, they strain to love him, and they feel ashamed of themselves when they cannot.
Because of the fearful weight of guilt attached to such a confession, it is an extremely rare thing for any child of God within Christianity’s white-washed walls to admit to himself how he really feels about that god. They try, but they cannot really love his cold ceremonial rites; they cannot love his conflicting statutes and doctrines and his ofttimes proud and ignorant ministers. But Jesus is setting his people free from that oppression. The light is coming to us again.
When Jesus takes from his people’s hearts the fear of admitting that they hate Christianity, they will begin to gain knowledge of their heavenly Father that is so true and so good that they will respond the only way one can: by loving Him deeply and faithfully. This renewed knowledge of God that deliverance from Christianity brings, also brings with it a renewed love for our heavenly Father. It is a kind of love and a depth of love that is impossible for saints to offer to the god of Christianity because that god lacks the goodness to inspire it.
If the children of God do not give up hope and resign themselves to serve the god of Christianity, if they will cling to their original hope that there is one truth that can be known, the Spirit of God is coming to the rescue! Let us labor to get the truth to them before they become discouraged! Let us work with Jesus to let them know that they can be happy and free now before they give up hope and surrender completely to the demons of Christianity. They want to love the God that touched their hearts and called them out of sin. May God help us show them the way to know Him so that they can.