Jesus Doesn't Love You

Jesus loves me! This I know, For the Bible tells me so. Wait... no it doesn't. My wife was mimicking the song as a joke and it struck me, the Bible doesn't say that Jesus loves you. Cite the passage or it never happened. People have inferred Jesus' love. But is that really good enough? Would you remain married to someone who never said, "I love you."? Who only showed you once every 2000 years they loved you?

So I start digging in the Bible. There are passages of Jesus' love. In the New Testament, the closest we get is John 15:8-10 "My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father . "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. just as I obey my Father and remain in his love.
" In this passage he's speaking to his disciples directly. Not to a crowd. Not to all of us. Even then he's saying obey and you can have my love. This isn't consistent with what you would require for those in your life and in fact, Paul seems to disagree with this version of love. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs." 1 Corinthians 13:1 4-5 Even John 3:16 which seems to be the greatest show of love ever is about God's love and says nothing of Jesus' love. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." I hear the counter to this already, "But he is god." Explain that to John 15 where he says "just as I obey my Father". The bulk of the love passages in the Bible are requirements of us to love God or Jesus. The requirement itself is the antithesis of love.

It's like having that parent that never hugs you or says I love you. Have they really loved you if it can't be expressed? I have an aunt who had difficulty expressing herself in a loving manner when she was younger. She had three boys. The middle son was the best athlete. The best student. He was clearly the favorite. He went undefeated two years in wrestling except for the state finals. He choked. His younger brother went on to win it the following year. When he came up to see his mom, her first comment was, "I wish that your brother could have done that." The moment was stolen. No hug. No I love you. No expression of pride. Since becoming a grandmother she has greatly improved which is good for all. Jesus could have explicitly stated his love for all. Instead, he demands love, an act that anyone with self-respect would reject.

Love is not about rules. Love is not about being on your side. Love is not something only to be requited when you feel like it. Love is not about judgement. Love is not anger. Jesus is about all of these things. If Jesus loves you and you know it, I feel sad for your life. If love is judgement and rules and this is the greatest love in your life, I send out a big hug. Jesus never showed that he loved you. Jesus "obeyed" his father on the cross. Demand more from your spiritual leader. The next time you hear someone say that Jesus Loves You, ask them, "Where in the Bible can I find that passage?"

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Comment by Matt Coulthurst on September 22, 2010 at 1:49am: Awesome post, Gaytor.

Comment by Cara Coleen on September 22, 2010 at 2:10am

Comment by AdB on September 22, 2010 at 3:00am: I've not been around T|A for a long while now and this is the first post I've read in many months. This is beautiful -- thanks, Gaytor!

Comment by Jon Heim on September 22, 2010 at 3:42am: AdB you should stop by more often!

and I have to agree...this is pretty interesting. lol

Comment by Gaytor on September 22, 2010 at 9:38am: I don't know Jeff. The timing is right, but the two Authors aren't noted as revivalists. 1 , 2. It's hard to know where the soap box preachers were and whom they "got" to sometimes. Maybe someone has read up on Susan Warner and Anna Bartlett?

Comment by Michael Jon Axl on September 22, 2010 at 11:04am: Love really is just a lie. There is no such thing as love. It is just another chemical reaction in your brain like happiness or anger. Love or the idea of it can change in any given second.

Comment by Michael Jon Axl on September 22, 2010 at 11:34am: She knows my views on all that stuff and agrees on a lot of it but of course i still have to tell her I love her. Which isn't all that bad.

Comment by Cara Coleen on September 22, 2010 at 1:09pm: @Michael

Based on your argument, there's very little that could be considered "real". Everything is a chemical reaction, even the creation of stars. Life in general is one, big chemical reaction. Depression is real (chemical imbalance); you're really a man even though what makes you a man is simply a certain combination of chemicals; ADD is real (though over-diagnosed); schizophrenia is real; happiness is real (because of endorphins)... the list goes on. I could go down this path for a long time... and then we'd have to get into a weird philosophical discussion about what "real" actually means.

I don't understand the argument that something isn't real because it's an adaptation that has been passed down through evolution, or because it's a "chemical reaction". Doesn't the fact that we can test it make it real?

I'm not a big romantic by any stretch of the imagination; I don't believe in soul mates and I hate watching chick flicks. I am in a relationship, and I do love him... and maybe "love" is just a bond or attachment that forms between two organisms for the purpose of procreating and raising offspring (not that we're actually planning on doing either). But love is real in a testable way. It doesn't have to be based in the metaphysical, supernatural realm, but we can acknowledge that it is real. Humans are real... and we're just one big chemical reaction.

Comment by willailla on September 22, 2010 at 2:13pm: God is love...doubt that and you will burn in hell forever!

Comment by Michael Jon Axl on September 22, 2010 at 2:56pm: @Cara Coleen

Well you are correct in many things you said.

"Doesn't the fact that we can test it make it real?"

You can not really test it. In doing so one is bound to discover that it in fact doesn't exist. I look at love like this, people say all day long how much they love their shoes, purses, cars, cellphones, books, people, animals and etc. We tell our spouses that they re the only ones we could ever love in the respects of being a mate. But in fact we are capable of loving many many people in the same way. Love certainly isn't based on two people getting together to procreate or raise children. Then we need to take a look at love in terms of falling out of love. If love was this cosmic thing we are all acceptable to then could we fall out of love with things or people. Falling out of love with something or someone isn't always based on concrete problems that arise either. Some people just get tired of the thing they love.

Maybe this is look at what the definition of love is.

When looking at what is real and what isn't or what can be proven, love is harder than anger or happiness. Love isn't a emotion it is a train of thought. If love were measurable would it be measured the same way for all people? Would one die for what they love? If you say i love you to your partner do you love your cellphone just as much? But again that would fall into definition of what love is. Some people claim that they love something but they are not in love with it. What is the difference? To love something must mean you care for it, and you like it in your life. You enjoy the things you love because they bring you happiness. So do we define love simply by the things that make us happy? If we did that then by definition love does exist.

Maybe it is just my inability to grasp love, but i see it as bollix. There isn't a single person or a single thing on earth that i couldn't replace with something else. Maybe it's just me but there are a lot of people getting divorced these days.

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