LOVE SUPPORTS THE WEAK

Do you realise the influence that God's love (agape) has had over His plan by supporting the weak?

Let us examine love and see how it operates.

Firstly, love puts you under an obligation; it is something that every Christian owes.

Romans 13:8 says: "Owe no one anything except to love one another…"The Greek word for "love" in that scripture is in the present infinitive active, which indicates that our love for one another should be continuous.

In fact, the New International Version says: "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another…" In other words, Christians must owe nothing except continuous love. That puts you under an obligation - you must continue in love.

How should we carry out this obligation? 1 John 5:3 tells us that the love of God involves keeping His commandments. We are obliged, by love, to keep God's commandments. So let us look specifically at one of these commandments.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 says: "Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all."

We are told in that scripture that we must uphold the weak. The Greek word for "uphold" there, can mean "to support." It is in the present imperative active, indicating that supporting the weak is a command. And the word for "weak", can mean any kind of weakness, from financially weak, to physically or spiritually weak, and even weak in knowledge.

So, if Christians were to fail to support the weak, they would have broken their obligation to love. And given that the Greek word parabaino, which means "to transgress", involves the neglect of obligations, it follows that they would have sinned.

So with all of the above in mind, let us look at God, and see how His love has influenced His plan, by supporting the weak.

God is love (1 John 4:8), therefore He is under the same obligation to support the weak, that we are. All the evidence points to the fact that without the nature of God, a person is vulnerable to sin. Jesus, with the nature of God, endured crucifixion without a single sinful thought. On the other hand, Adam, who lacked the nature of God, didn't even make it past lunch. That put Adam and Eve, and therefore all of mankind, in a very weak position, and in need of support.

Do you think God was not aware of that?

Even before Adam and Eve sinned, they were in a weak position. They were weak in knowledge. Without a nature which could resist sin, (and therefore escape death), they would require support if they were to remain sinless, when Satan moved against them. So when God allowed Satan into the Garden of Eden, the result of which caused mankind to fall, it can appear that He did not support the weak. Does that mean that He had broken His obligation to support the weak? Does that mean that God had sinned?

No. The particular Greek word for "love," that we are interested in here, is agape, which has to do with doing what is needed, or necessary, in any given situation. Allowing Satan access to Adam and Eve, and therefore mankind, was what was needed; it was a necessary means to an end. It was love. It was the ultimate in support for the weak, because the result would be Universal Salvation - eternal life for all with free will.

You see, if the truth makes you free (John 8:32), you can never be free unless you have full proven truth. In order to prove the truth about evil, evil had to be allowed for a period of time. Therefore it was necessary for God to allow evil for us to receive full proven truth, and to be made free. So allowing evil, ultimately, would support the weak in a much greater way; it would provide the way for all to have eternal life, with free will, which was God's plan.

However, allowing evil on its own was not what was needed. In order to provide full proven truth, God had to show that created beings could be taken up to His nature, and never sin in spite of evil. Without this vital knowledge being proven, we could never be sure that sin and death would not come about again. To provide this proven knowledge, two created beings were needed; one to be trained up to the nature of God, and one programmed with the nature of God; both ending up with eternal life and free will. In other words, the end result for both would be identical, with both ending up perfect.