Lightbearer.org

"This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another."

- John 15:12-17

How do we love one another? Previously, I wrote that Freedom is Love.

Let me illustrate a little bit more about it by quoting one of the great minds of the American Constitution - Thomas Jefferson.

I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Francis Hopkinson, March 13, 1789

Man once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind.

- Thomas Jefferson to James Smith, 1822.

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion.

- Thomas Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, Sept. 23, 1800

Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.

- Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, August 1, 1816

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

- Thomas Jefferson (Notes on Virginia, 1782)

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

- Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789

Over and over again, Thomas Jefferson talked about freedom of thought; the freedom to discuss issues; the freedom of speech; man's religion is between him and God alone, etc.

Why is this? Did Thomas Jefferson see freedom - the freedom to think for one's self, the freedom to discuss any subject, the freedom to express one's opinion as love as well?

It may seem that one is looking out for another by telling a person to not listen to someone who's saying something contrary to one's personal belief. However, upon digging a little deeper and analysing this action, it is not an act of love.

As Jefferson eloquently said, "Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."

Take for instance one's emphatic insistence that 'there is one God in three Persons', a statement reflecting one's religious affiliation. On the surface, warning others not to listen to anyone who suggests otherwise - that the One God is not "a unity of three co-eternal Persons", may seem like an act of love, an act of protecting a fellow member of his church affiliation.

However, as you've read Thomas Jefferson above, this warning is an act of tyranny for it limits one's personal freedom to think for one's self, to squelch discussion of the like and to promote even more bigotry of something this person may not even fully understand himself!

How about the Bible? What is the Biblical admonition in such matters?

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

- Isaiah 1:18

The Hebrew word is yackach which means:

to prove, decide, judge, rebuke, reprove, correct, be right

(Hiphil)
to decide, judge
to adjudge, appoint
to show to be right, prove
to convince, convict
to reprove, chide
to correct, rebuke
(Hophal) to be chastened
(Niphal) to reason, reason together
(Hithp) to argue

The book of Job has the most occurences (15). If you click on the previous link and read the different instances, you'll find that the book of Job contains the different renderings of the Hebrew word.

Reprove, plead, arguing, chasten, correct are found in the book of Job.

For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

- Proverbs 3:12

It is worth noting that in Proverbs, love is associated with the same Hebrew word, this time rendered 'correcteth' or 'to correct'.

It is really an act of love to reason together, to discuss differing positions because it does not limit one's personal freedom to decide for one's self, based on the Word alone, whether the one God is a 'unity of three co-eternal Persons' or not.

If I told you to only listen to me and no other on this matter, my action is not driven by the spirit of Christ, nor am I following His command - to love one another. Love allows freedom - of thought, expression, speech.

Another implication is that you are not smart or intelligent enough to decide for yourself what you should believe. This is nonsense! If you are not mentally or physically sick that makes you incompetent, you can understand God's Word! He gave it to us - the common or lay people - as well as to the learned with letters after their name.

If you want to protect someone from erring in doctrine or in any kind of belief, educate him. And true education teaches not just what one's position on a given issue but teaches - with equal zeal and without bias - the different positions on the subject.

The truth doesn't need protecting for it can stand on its own without anyone's help provided that one is allowed to discuss, research and reason together. In tyranny, truth is the casualty. And telling people not to listen to someone with a different view is a form of tyranny, among other things.

And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

- John 8:32

God loves us enough to grant us the freedom to choose - to either love Him back or not. God's way is the better way. He prefers that you choose Him out of love instead of out of fear.

Back in the days of slavery here in America, the slaves remained with their slave-owners not because they love their masters but because they feared them - what they might do to them if they choose to escape and get caught.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron...If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

- 1 Timothy 4:1-2,6

One may think the passage above goes against the idea that warning someone to not listen to a different view is a good thing. What do we do then with the passage in Isaiah that admonishes us to 'reason together'?

Here's the crux of sound Word study: harmonize the passages and let the Word tell you how we should proceed.

First, if one is telling you not to listen to witchcraft or things of the occult, it is an act of love because the Word clearly tells us that these are an abomination to God.

In the issue of the identify of the one God, the subject in question is not an inherently and Biblically shunned subject. We must strive to know Who the one God is because it is the first and great commandment!

Paul and Silas' experience in Berea gives as an example:

And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. - Acts 17:10-13

Notice the reaction of the Bereans in contrast to the leadership of that day! The Bereans received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily and decided for themselves whether the message of Paul and Silas were in harmony with the Word.

This is how we must be - open to spiritual issues, relying only on the Word as the final authority, not any man's, including our own opinions!

Let's continue:

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. 18 Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him.

And some said,

What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying,

May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.

(For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars? hill, and said,

Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man?s device.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

- Acts 17:16-31

Who did Paul declare as the UNKNOWN GOD?

God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

If one only dilligently, sincerely and humbly open God's Word to find out if things were so, one will know the truth about God and His Son!

God is the Creator, the Lord God Almighty, the One Who sits on the throne, Who created all things ( Revelation 4:8-11 ) through His Son ( John 1:2 ; Eph 3:9 ; Colossians 1:14-16 ; Hebrews 1:1-3 ; 1 Corinthians 8:6 ) Worship Him and give Him glory!

In the end, whatever action one must make, may it be out of love - love for God, first and foremost, and love for each other. And freedom is love.

What did our Master warn us about being disciples of Him?

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

- John 15:18-21

But be of good cheer! Our Master overcame the world!