The True Heart and Core of Christianity
Some form of Christianity is practiced on every continent and in nearly every country on Planet Earth. Adherents to Christianity are spread among a myriad of organizations with an equally innumerable set of doctrines, beliefs, and practices. When you consider the Babylon of confusion in Christianity, you have to wonder if any one of these differing groups has a clue about what real Christianity is. Do any practice the Christianity preached by Jesus Christ and the first century apostles? With such diversity of belief, it is imperative that those who consider themselves Christian, or those who might wish to learn about Christianity, ask some deeply probing questions about this major religious system. One of those big questions is: “What is the true heart and the core of Christianity?” If Christianity were distilled to its central element, what would it would be? Regardless of what man and organizations say, what does the Bible say is the core of Christianity?
The Apostle Paul’s Answer
The apostle Paul gave the Ephesians understanding of what that central element is.
Ephesians 3:16-19
… be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
In this passage, Paul told the Ephesians - and all Christians - of the importance of having the Spirit of God living in them. The message to all humans is that Christ must live in our hearts. The goal we humans have is to be filled with all the fullness of God – we must become fully like God. But how? In the midst of these verses, Paul used a double metaphor to teach us what the central element – the heart and core – of Christianity is. He said that in order to be filled with all the fullness of God, we must be rooted and grounded in love. From this passage, we have to conclude that the true essence of Christianity is love. Love is the heart and core of Christianity.
Paul used metaphors from agriculture and architecture to illustrate how vital love is. He first stated that Christians must be “rooted … in love.” The word “root” indicates “an essential part or element; the basic core” (American Heritage Dictionary). A root is absolutely necessary for the life of a plant. (If you want to destroy a plant, the most effective way is to kill the root.) The message Paul sought to communicate to Christians was that as a healthy plant is rooted in fertile soil, Christians must be rooted in and surrounded by love. As we are planted in the “spiritual soil” of love, we draw in and absorb love as nourishment. As love comes into us and flows through us, God builds us up and fills us with all of His fullness. As we take in love, the basic nature of God becomes firmly established in us. Love strengthens us and makes us stable in the way of God.
Paul’s lesson from architecture is that we must be “grounded in love.” That statement teaches us that love is the foundation - the base - on which our lives must be built. Those whose lives are founded on love display strength and are able to withstand all the storms and trials that come their way.
If we want to have a right understanding, if we want to know the love of Christ, if we want to be filled with all the fullness of God, we must be rooted and grounded in love. The root from which everything else in Christianity flows is love. The foundation, the very basis, of Christianity is love.
John’s Emphasis
Paul was not the only apostle to write of the importance of love. John, in the epistles written near the end of his life, emphasized our need for this essential element.
1 John 4:7-8, 11-12
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God… 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. … 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 …. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
This passage states that God is love and that the source of true love is God. Everything we need to know about God is summed up in one word – love. That word tells us about His nature and His character. It tells us how He will act. You can have knowledge about who God is and what God is, but if you do not know that God is love, you do not know God at all. And God says if you do not love, then you do not know Him. Loving one another is the evidence that God is living in us and that His nature is being perfected in us.
What Did Christ Himself Say?
When Christ was about to die, he took time to give His apostles instruction in those things that are basic and essential. His final words to the apostles emphasized how He felt about the importance of love. He boiled His message down to its core element and gave them these instructions.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
He said that the sign of being a true disciple of His is loving others as He loved us. Over past two millennia, as man has developed an amazing array of religious systems, the truth is nearly all have totally departed from this basic message. Instead of adhering to the teachings of Christ about what is important, religious leaders have inserted their own systems of orthodoxy. Christ clearly indicated that the sign of true Christians is not some church governmental structure, not their outward appearance or ethnic group, and not their adherence to some man-defined form of worship. True Christians are to be known by the love members have for each other. All that Christians do must be based on love.
Love and the Law
Some feel uncomfortable with any mention of “love.” They, instead, relate to rules and regulations. Are the two mutually exclusive? Is there any relationship between love and the Law? The Apostle Paul related love to keeping the Law. He said that the purpose for the commandments is to teach us to love. When we love, we fulfill the law.
Romans 13:8-10
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments … are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
1 Timothy 1:5
Now the purpose [Greek “telos”: point, goal] of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
Christ Himself taught that the basis of the Law is loving God and loving neighbor. He first emphasized the need to love God with all our being. He adds that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Matthew 22:36-40
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [Mark 12:30 adds strength.] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Christ did not come to do away with the Law – the Ten Commandments. He came to give a deeper understanding of God – His nature and His Way. He revealed that God is love and that love is the source and basis for the commandments. It is sad that the vast majority of Christendom has rejected the Law of God. In doing so, they have also rejected the love of God. The Law of God shows how His way of love is implemented in living terms. God’s way of love shows the importance of family, human life, and safeguarding others’ property. It is based on giving to others (Acts 20:35) and not getting for the self. It is also shows who the real God is and how we should interact with Him.
When hearts and minds are filled with love, humans will obey the real laws of God. Any other obedience is forced; it is compliance. It is not based on the true conversion of the heart. Forced obedience is what the Pharisees and scribes had; they were obedient to a form of government and a system of regulations. They had supplanted the love of God and the Law of God with their own system of do’s and don’ts. With that system, they could easily take a person’s religious measurements. Their hearts were not converted to the law of love. Their minds were not being filled with the very nature of God. God nowhere indicates that He wants us to live by the military, dictatorial, or authoritarian model. He does not want us to give up all thought and will to someone else who will think and decide for us. He wants us on our own to decide with our heads to adopt as our way of life the way that He lives – the way of love, for He is love.
It is interesting that in Mark12, the parallel account of Matthew 22, the scribe who asked the question about the great commandment agreed with Christ’s answer. Verse 34 says “Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ " Truly understanding and implementing love towards God and love towards neighbor helps us be prepared for the coming kingdom of God.
The Love Chapter
In I Corinthians 13, Paul tells Christians what is essential and what is not essential. His comparisons show the utter superiority of love.
1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Paul’s final words in the love chapter are: “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
What Is Love?
So what is love? In I Corinthians 13, Paul further defined love. He showed what love in action is like.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The New Testament word “love” is translated from two Greek words.
NT: 5368 phileo (fil-eh'-o); from NT:5384; to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), i.e. have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling; while NT:25 is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety: the two thus stand related very much as NT:2309 and NT:1014, or as NT:2372 and NT:3563 respectively; the former being chiefly of the heart and the latter of the head); specifically, to kiss (as a mark of tenderness): KJV - kiss, love. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
NT: 25 agapao (ag-ap-ah'-o); perhaps from agan (much) [or compare OT:5689]; to love (in a social or moral sense): KJV - (be-) love (-ed). Compare NT:5368. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
These two words reflect the essence of New Covenant theology. God is converting (changing) the nature of man from the physical, materialistic way of doing things to the spiritual. To do that, both the mind and the heart must be changed. The heart and mind must become filled up with love. “Agapao” (or agape) love is love from the head. Taking on this love means our minds and thoughts reflect a different way of thinking. Those thoughts are based on truth. “Phileo” (or philia) love is love from the heart, from our emotions. This love is active and moving. True love is not complete unless the head and the heart are involved. The Law of God provides the “head” part of love. It gives a definition of love. But by itself, that knowledge is insufficient. True love requires heart and emotion to make it alive and to make it blossom forth into actions of good. Love is analogous to a river of water flowing through a riverbed. The “agape” love, the Law of God in the mind, is the riverbed giving direction to the “philia” love, love from the heart in action.
The essence and core of Christianity is love. Love is the root and ground. The commandments from God are based on His character and His fundamental nature, which is love. The words of the Law and Prophets are founded on love. Christ came preaching about the establishment of the Kingdom of God. His message foretold of a coming time when there would be a cataclysmic change in the order of things, a time when there would be a fundamental change in the hearts and minds of men. To be a part of the coming Kingdom of God, we must become as God is. We must be filled with all the fullness of love. Through the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit, our hearts and minds can be changed from the way of the flesh to the way of the Spirit, from the way of lust to the way of love. Through the Spirit, we can be rooted and grounded in love. When we are rooted and grounded in love, we can be filled with all the fullness of God. True Christians must put this way of life into practice. True Christians must be constantly striving to let our basic nature be changed to the way of love. When that is the goal, all else falls in place.
Part of this message was given as a Pentecost sermonette on June 12, 2005.
The Apostle Paul’s Answer
The apostle Paul gave the Ephesians understanding of what that central element is.
Ephesians 3:16-19
… be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
In this passage, Paul told the Ephesians - and all Christians - of the importance of having the Spirit of God living in them. The message to all humans is that Christ must live in our hearts. The goal we humans have is to be filled with all the fullness of God – we must become fully like God. But how? In the midst of these verses, Paul used a double metaphor to teach us what the central element – the heart and core – of Christianity is. He said that in order to be filled with all the fullness of God, we must be rooted and grounded in love. From this passage, we have to conclude that the true essence of Christianity is love. Love is the heart and core of Christianity.
Paul used metaphors from agriculture and architecture to illustrate how vital love is. He first stated that Christians must be “rooted … in love.” The word “root” indicates “an essential part or element; the basic core” (American Heritage Dictionary). A root is absolutely necessary for the life of a plant. (If you want to destroy a plant, the most effective way is to kill the root.) The message Paul sought to communicate to Christians was that as a healthy plant is rooted in fertile soil, Christians must be rooted in and surrounded by love. As we are planted in the “spiritual soil” of love, we draw in and absorb love as nourishment. As love comes into us and flows through us, God builds us up and fills us with all of His fullness. As we take in love, the basic nature of God becomes firmly established in us. Love strengthens us and makes us stable in the way of God.
Paul’s lesson from architecture is that we must be “grounded in love.” That statement teaches us that love is the foundation - the base - on which our lives must be built. Those whose lives are founded on love display strength and are able to withstand all the storms and trials that come their way.
If we want to have a right understanding, if we want to know the love of Christ, if we want to be filled with all the fullness of God, we must be rooted and grounded in love. The root from which everything else in Christianity flows is love. The foundation, the very basis, of Christianity is love.
John’s Emphasis
Paul was not the only apostle to write of the importance of love. John, in the epistles written near the end of his life, emphasized our need for this essential element.
1 John 4:7-8, 11-12
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God… 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. … 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 …. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
This passage states that God is love and that the source of true love is God. Everything we need to know about God is summed up in one word – love. That word tells us about His nature and His character. It tells us how He will act. You can have knowledge about who God is and what God is, but if you do not know that God is love, you do not know God at all. And God says if you do not love, then you do not know Him. Loving one another is the evidence that God is living in us and that His nature is being perfected in us.
What Did Christ Himself Say?
When Christ was about to die, he took time to give His apostles instruction in those things that are basic and essential. His final words to the apostles emphasized how He felt about the importance of love. He boiled His message down to its core element and gave them these instructions.
John 13:34-35
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
He said that the sign of being a true disciple of His is loving others as He loved us. Over past two millennia, as man has developed an amazing array of religious systems, the truth is nearly all have totally departed from this basic message. Instead of adhering to the teachings of Christ about what is important, religious leaders have inserted their own systems of orthodoxy. Christ clearly indicated that the sign of true Christians is not some church governmental structure, not their outward appearance or ethnic group, and not their adherence to some man-defined form of worship. True Christians are to be known by the love members have for each other. All that Christians do must be based on love.
Love and the Law
Some feel uncomfortable with any mention of “love.” They, instead, relate to rules and regulations. Are the two mutually exclusive? Is there any relationship between love and the Law? The Apostle Paul related love to keeping the Law. He said that the purpose for the commandments is to teach us to love. When we love, we fulfill the law.
Romans 13:8-10
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments … are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
1 Timothy 1:5
Now the purpose [Greek “telos”: point, goal] of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,
Christ Himself taught that the basis of the Law is loving God and loving neighbor. He first emphasized the need to love God with all our being. He adds that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Matthew 22:36-40
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [Mark 12:30 adds strength.] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."
Christ did not come to do away with the Law – the Ten Commandments. He came to give a deeper understanding of God – His nature and His Way. He revealed that God is love and that love is the source and basis for the commandments. It is sad that the vast majority of Christendom has rejected the Law of God. In doing so, they have also rejected the love of God. The Law of God shows how His way of love is implemented in living terms. God’s way of love shows the importance of family, human life, and safeguarding others’ property. It is based on giving to others (Acts 20:35) and not getting for the self. It is also shows who the real God is and how we should interact with Him.
When hearts and minds are filled with love, humans will obey the real laws of God. Any other obedience is forced; it is compliance. It is not based on the true conversion of the heart. Forced obedience is what the Pharisees and scribes had; they were obedient to a form of government and a system of regulations. They had supplanted the love of God and the Law of God with their own system of do’s and don’ts. With that system, they could easily take a person’s religious measurements. Their hearts were not converted to the law of love. Their minds were not being filled with the very nature of God. God nowhere indicates that He wants us to live by the military, dictatorial, or authoritarian model. He does not want us to give up all thought and will to someone else who will think and decide for us. He wants us on our own to decide with our heads to adopt as our way of life the way that He lives – the way of love, for He is love.
It is interesting that in Mark12, the parallel account of Matthew 22, the scribe who asked the question about the great commandment agreed with Christ’s answer. Verse 34 says “Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, ‘You are not far from the kingdom of God.’ " Truly understanding and implementing love towards God and love towards neighbor helps us be prepared for the coming kingdom of God.
The Love Chapter
In I Corinthians 13, Paul tells Christians what is essential and what is not essential. His comparisons show the utter superiority of love.
1 Corinthians 13
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
- He says that you can speak in all the languages of mankind, but if you do not have love in your heart and mind, your gift of languages is of no value.
- You can know all prophecies and when they were or will be fulfilled, but if you do not care for others, you are nothing.
- You can understand the intricacies of the law, all about history and science, and be able to prove the existence of God beyond all doubt, but if you do not put love into action, your knowledge is of no use.
- You may have the faith to heal the sick and raise the dead, but if you do not love your neighbor and brethren, it is all in vain.
- You can give away all you have, you can sacrifice your life for others even, but if all of that is not done with love, it is vain, empty and useless.
Paul’s final words in the love chapter are: “the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
What Is Love?
So what is love? In I Corinthians 13, Paul further defined love. He showed what love in action is like.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The New Testament word “love” is translated from two Greek words.
NT: 5368 phileo (fil-eh'-o); from NT:5384; to be a friend to (fond of [an individual or an object]), i.e. have affection for (denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling; while NT:25 is wider, embracing especially the judgment and the deliberate assent of the will as a matter of principle, duty and propriety: the two thus stand related very much as NT:2309 and NT:1014, or as NT:2372 and NT:3563 respectively; the former being chiefly of the heart and the latter of the head); specifically, to kiss (as a mark of tenderness): KJV - kiss, love. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
NT: 25 agapao (ag-ap-ah'-o); perhaps from agan (much) [or compare OT:5689]; to love (in a social or moral sense): KJV - (be-) love (-ed). Compare NT:5368. (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
These two words reflect the essence of New Covenant theology. God is converting (changing) the nature of man from the physical, materialistic way of doing things to the spiritual. To do that, both the mind and the heart must be changed. The heart and mind must become filled up with love. “Agapao” (or agape) love is love from the head. Taking on this love means our minds and thoughts reflect a different way of thinking. Those thoughts are based on truth. “Phileo” (or philia) love is love from the heart, from our emotions. This love is active and moving. True love is not complete unless the head and the heart are involved. The Law of God provides the “head” part of love. It gives a definition of love. But by itself, that knowledge is insufficient. True love requires heart and emotion to make it alive and to make it blossom forth into actions of good. Love is analogous to a river of water flowing through a riverbed. The “agape” love, the Law of God in the mind, is the riverbed giving direction to the “philia” love, love from the heart in action.
The essence and core of Christianity is love. Love is the root and ground. The commandments from God are based on His character and His fundamental nature, which is love. The words of the Law and Prophets are founded on love. Christ came preaching about the establishment of the Kingdom of God. His message foretold of a coming time when there would be a cataclysmic change in the order of things, a time when there would be a fundamental change in the hearts and minds of men. To be a part of the coming Kingdom of God, we must become as God is. We must be filled with all the fullness of love. Through the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit, our hearts and minds can be changed from the way of the flesh to the way of the Spirit, from the way of lust to the way of love. Through the Spirit, we can be rooted and grounded in love. When we are rooted and grounded in love, we can be filled with all the fullness of God. True Christians must put this way of life into practice. True Christians must be constantly striving to let our basic nature be changed to the way of love. When that is the goal, all else falls in place.
Part of this message was given as a Pentecost sermonette on June 12, 2005.
posted by Manuel at 12:19 PM
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