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Fundamental
Evangelistic Association
selected
articles from:
©FOUNDATION
A MAGAZINE OF BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
Dennis W. Costella, Editor; Karel Beyer, Production Manager; Matt
Costella,
Copy Editor
M.H. Reynolds, Jr. (1919-1997), Founding Editor
This Is Not Love
©FOUNDATION Magazine Editorial,
1990 reprinted May-June 1999
We hear much talk today about love.
Surely we all need more of this important and wonderful quality. But what is love? How is
it manifested? True love originated with God. God is love - and He manifested His love to
us through the Lord Jesus Christ who "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own
blood." God's love is pure, powerful and eternal. But, there are many satanic and
human counterfeits of God's love. Only a careful study of the Scriptures will give us the
necessary discernment to tell the difference.
Through the years, most Fundamentalists have exercised proper
spiritual discernment in identifying and repudiating the twisted, perverted concepts of
love promoted by popular religious and secular groups. When the ecumenical movement used
love to justify collaboration and cooperation with false teachers and religions,
Fundamentalists correctly said, "This is not love-this is disobedience!" When
Evangelicals used love to justify their remaining in denominations led by apostates,
Fundamentalists correctly said, "This is not love-this is disobedience." When
the hippie movement, the Jesus People movement and, more recently, the Charismatic
movement used love to justify unscriptural positions and actions, Fundamentalists
correctly said, "This is not love-this is disobedience.
But now some Fundamentalists are embracing a false view of love,
claiming that love is always positive and never negative. In the name of love, the
Christian soldier is asked to put down his sword; the watchman is instructed to be silent;
the shepherd is told he must not warn about the wolves in the flock who draw away
disciples after themselves. In the name of love, the Scriptural ministry of reproof and
rebuke is placed "off limits." Therefore, true Fundamentalists must once again
say, "This is not love-this is disobedience."
Those who truly love the Lord and manifest His love to others are
specifically instructed to separate from false teachers and disobedient brethren. They are
also instructed to exercise the Scriptural ministry of reproof and rebuke. Man may call
this "negativism," but God calls it obedience! Fundamentalists should not forget
that it is because of God's love that we have been commissioned as soldiers, watchmen and
shepherds. God is concerned about the welfare of His own. Scriptural rebuke is not opposed
to love-it is a manifestation of love. Whenever love is re-defined to preclude the
ministry of reproof and rebuke, the devil rejoices, and the enemy is given a protected
haven inside the camp. As Fundamentalists, we must not allow this to happen.
M.
H. Reynolds, Jr.
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