“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” - John 14:15
The greatest mischaracterization of Jesus Christ is the erroneous belief that He is all love and nothing but love. Such a belief reduces Christ to a one-dimensional being who is happy to overlook any sin, loves you ‘just the way you are,’ and would never punish anyone by sending them to hell. This is a god of their own design made in direct violation of the second and third Commandments - “You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” - Exodus 20:3-4. Again, the ‘Jesus’ prayed to by most unbelievers is a figment of their imagination or a downright designer god made in the image of their desires. Either way, he is not the Jesus of the Bible. He is a fantasy figure of their own making, based upon the attributes they find most appealing. After all, if he is not the Jesus of the Bible then who is he and where did they get their beliefs?
Mind you, this imaginary Jesus will never be the subject of their worship or praise. He is only thought about in their pagan prayers when they are left without recourse or when they are without hope. They toss out their anchors, hoping they’ll grab in the winds of expectation only to find that in the end, they have no real hope. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” - Matthew 7:21-23.
Oftentimes, these unbelievers will try to shame Bible-believing Christians by claiming that Jesus loves everyone and doesn’t judge anyone in stark contrast to what Scripture says. This is one of the oldest tactics ever devised by the Accuser - ‘make every attempt to turn their own weapons against them.’ Sadly for these unbelievers, the ploy will never work against a true Christian who has a handle on the Bible and what it says in its context. It’s actually just a pathetic bid to use our faith in God against us. For we know what our sovereign Lord expects from us. True love of God and neighbor is exhibited in our thought, words, and deeds - “And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.” - 2 John 1:6. Notice, we are called to walk ‘according to His commandments,’ not just the ones we prefer or find easiest to comply with.
Just because we acknowledge the schemes of the devil we shouldn’t assume he and his minions will change them anytime too soon. We need to remember the wiles of the devil- he knows Scripture and exactly how to twist it to serve his malevolent purposes. Because we live in a fallen world, he never lacks the stooges to charge us with failure to live up to our calling. As Christians, we will always be called to face off with subversives who contort the Word of God in their feeble attempts to make us back away from our faith. They will make every effort to become the stumbling blocks in our walk with God. Let us always remember the warning Christ gave. “. . . but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” - Matthew 18:6.
As we pursue our faith, we keep in mind the truth of love as described in God’s holy Word - “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.” - 1 Corinthians 16:13. Standing firm in the faith, we will never be subject to the chicanery of unbelief.
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