PORTERVILLE POST | The Right News at the Right Time

| First Focus : A Closer Look
The Right Word^© - Mar 23, 2025
with Brother Scott : scott@portervillepost.com

We have taken a good look at the command of God to love Him above all others and to love others as we do ourselves (ex. † Deuteronomy 6:4, 10:12, † Mark 12:28-31).
In today’s follow-up discussion we are going to more closely define what that love looks like as it is to be expressed through the mind, heart, words and actions of a believer that walks in biblical love.
Why take the time? Because like the lawyer in the parable of the good Samaritan, we can easily try to set the conditions for what that love will be in us toward God and others, which will inevitably fall short of the what God requires.
First to examine is this: If we consider how the fallen nature behaves regarding relationships, how can we honestly approach the issue of how we feel and behave toward God?
As you consider the issue of your love for God, love that is commanded to be far more than you have for all others and the things of your life, I urge you to ask and answer these questions about yourself—ask yourself these things:

• Do I fear God—enough to even care what He requires of me (my love)?
• What is my heart and mind attitude toward God right now (“just not into God”, double-minded, an absence of any emotion, do I sense any affection for Him or nothing at all)?
• Am I truly grateful for His forgiveness and the promise of eternal life?
• Have I realized that loving “God” as I am expected to means loving the Person Jesus and having a love for His Father and ours also?
• Do I have the “want to” to love God and do I want that love grow to be predominant over all other things of my mind and heart?
• What is God saying to me at least each time we meet to worship Him and hear His spoken Word? Do I even want to hear what He desires to speak to me personally enough to listen for His voice?

Next to look at is this: If we again consider how the fallen nature behaves regarding relationships, where do you stand on the issue of how you feel and behave toward others you live with, work with, or even momentarily cross paths with day-by-day? To honestly consider the issue of your love for others, ask and answer these questions:

• Do I at least generally like people in the first place?
• If he or she is unkind or ugly toward me, or smells bad, how would I react today?
• Do I even care if this man or woman goes to hell—forever?
• Am I willing to stop making 7-second judgments about the new people I meet and instead always default to looking at them with love?
• For those that I do like or may be fond of but for some reason do not love, per se—am I willing to put aside selfish conditions that would normally end such a fondness and instead love them no matter what?
• For those that I have contempt or scorn for, am I willing to clear the slate and exchange those feelings for acceptance and love?

( † † † )

† Luke 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. 30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. 31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. . . 35 But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. 36 Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Thankfully, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul provided you and me some specifics of how biblical love is to think and with sincerity behave. Please pay attention to the ways in which the Greek language’s words add understanding.

( † † † )

† 1 Corinthians 12:31 ...covet earnestly the best [spiritual] gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent (supereminence, beyond measure from to throw beyond the usual mark) way. 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love [affection, benevolence]), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling 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, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity suffereth long (is long-spirited, patient, lenient), and is kind (shows oneself useful, benevolent [by actions]); charity envieth not (not jealous or envious); charity vaunteth not itself (brags or boasts), is not puffed up (haughty, puffed up with pride), 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly (act unbecoming [inappropriate, unsuitable), seeketh not her own (plots for own gain), is not easily provoked (exasperated, stirred-up), thinketh no evil (thoughts of harm or evil); 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity (injustice, moral failure or wrongs), but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth (roofs over, covers with silence, endures with patience) all things, believeth (has faith in, commits to trust) all things, hopeth (expects, trusts for) all things, endureth (to stay under [stick with], persevere, tarry behind, [resolute endurance]) all things. 8 Charity never faileth (falls away, becomes ineffective, be driven off course). . . 13 And now abideth (endures, remains, stands) faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest (larger, oldest [senior]) of these is charity. 14:1 Follow (pursue, press forward) after charity, and desire spiritual gifts. . .

These traits of biblical love lived in sincerity and truth are not possible to do if you are not submitted to the Holy Spirit. In other words, if you are still living a fleshly, worldly, spiritually undisciplined and self-centered life, you cannot walk in love; you are simply not able to and with any integrity before God respond in the ways Paul lists in that chapter.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians was forcefully addressing their slide back into the works of the flesh in trying to please God with a contrast of living in and by the Holy Spirit.

( † † † )

† Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 14 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 15 But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. 16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. . . 19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But [Behold the Underlying Truth] the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. 25 If we live in (are alive, quickened by) the Spirit, let us also walk in (conform to, march in step with) the Spirit. 26 Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

For one professing to be a follower of Jesus, Paul contrasts a life lived divorced from a devotion to God and the Holy Spirit’s help with a life being lived in a walk of sincerity by the Spirit of God. The word sincere in its ancient form means “without wax”. Gentile sculptors in Paul’s time might be asked this about their work, “Is it without wax; is any part of this repaired with wax and hidden with dye or paint?”, which we would say today, “Are you sincere?”
Last week as we discussed loving others when it’s not natural to by our (perhaps still) influential carnal nature, [we discussed that] some believers just do not love others, most are not students of the Word, are not taught about these things, and therefore don’t know how to so they do not walk in love as commanded (it’s as Jesus taught, they might love those that love them but no others).
Other believers might have developed within them a walk of biblical love toward most but find love out-of-reach about some people because of wrongs, strong disagreements, character clashes, or other things. You should have heard that these kinds of circumstances in no way excuse any follower of Jesus from loving others, since we can do all things through Christ by faith.
We are informed that “the just shall live by faith”, faith is to become the basis of everything about our new life as a Christian and not only about issues of forgiveness, the cleansing of our sin by the blood of Jesus, and the promises of God but in all matters of the mind and heart. Our minds are to be renewed by the Word and help of the Holy Spirit, and the rest of our heart’s capacities should follow in this transformation.

I know this study on love is weighty on your minds and may seem to be too heavy to comprehend and to live up to but it is what God’s Word teaches us:

1st. We are to personally love the Lord with all that we are in mind, heart, soul and strength (that takes a profound transformation over some time for many).
2nd. We are to love others as we do ourselves; even our enemies are our neighbors (for most of us—that will involve at first loving by the power of faith and allowing the development of the needed fruit of the Holy Spirit).

I heard someone say a while back and it is recorded in the Word that “Faith works by love” († Gal. 5:6), and in many instances that is true but it is also sometimes the case that to love (this one or that one) requires we love by faith (and not mere pretended feelings) until a deeper work in our lives is accomplished by God—He honors faith in all circumstances and can work big things by it.

3rd. And for this power of love and other things to take root and bear fruit in our lives, as we are commanded to be fruitful, we must read God’s Word daily, commune with Him daily, and obey what we learn from the Word and hear by His Spirit in our communion times with Him.

( † † † )

† 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought (owe, are under Divine obligation) also to love one another. 12 ...If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected (accomplished, completed) in us. 13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

† 1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. 8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

† John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. . . 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

There is great reward for those that by a sincere love for God walk in all that He has said to us but there are breathtakingly-negative-consequences for those that will not walk according to His Word.

( † † † )

† Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be [What you did with the Life He gave you.]. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 [But outside this city are. . .]

“Breathtakingly negative consequences for those that will not walk according to His Word”?
Except for the few but great God-called and anointed preachers and teachers of the 19th and into the 20th centuries, and a very few since then, the church has not been taught the whole counsel of God, including with regard to what waits for us after we pass from this human body into His eternal realm. I include myself when I say that we have been ignorant of what the Word of God reveals about the many aspects of what † Revelation 20 through 22 says about that forever afterlife.
Christians for the last 75 years or more have come to believe through others, or because of their own lack of reading the Bible for themselves, that Heaven is our eternal home (it is not), mansions are for everyone (not true), there will be treasure waiting for all believers (not unless the believer has laid up those treasures there during this life; † Matt. 6), Christians think that all the saved are going to have the many of things promised to overcomers in † Revelation 2 and 3 (the overcomers are those that have ears to hear and fully obey—how’s that going for most Christian claimants today).
It has become apparent to me that with these last many weeks of the more pointed and intense teaching segments we’ve had together that the Lord wants to tear away the veil of false beliefs that we live behind for the benefit of those that will hear-and-heed what the Word of God declares loud and clear—sadly, many will not pay attention.

Since 2025 began : Jesus Warned : Watch
Since 2025 began: Jesus Warned: Watch, Loose Ends, The Grand Plan of Elohim, Forthwith the Doors Were Shut, and this series First Focus; all these discussions shined the light of God on to the dark areas of our lives with both warnings of the consequences for disobedience, as well as the introduction of the truth of what awaits both the obedient godly, those saved from eternal separation, and that which awaits what the ungodly will have, which will be their being cast into the Lake of Fire.
I leave you with these thoughts to chew on this week and with the challenge that you go to the next higher level as a follower of Jesus or you, too, will have negative consequences to live with when you cross over.
Know this: You will always have free-will even in the next life. Are you yet disciplined enough and living in victory over sinning now or very soon?
As Christians, we must take the opportunity to be completely sanctified (made holy) while alive now in order to be found fit to live in the Presence of God in the New Jerusalem as eternity begins—or we will not be allowed through those gates into the city.
I urge you to surrender all of yourself to the Holy Spirit for what He sees needs to be done in order for you to have what God offers those that are truly holy in the life hereafter.

( † † † )

† Revelation 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. 8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things. 9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God. 10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. 11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. 12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be [what you did with the Life He gave you]. 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. 15 For without [living outside the gates upon the earth] are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.