Jonah Lee 22 Feb 2011.Most of us have this question in mind since God love us so much can His love fade away if we sin willfully?
To answer this question more accurately we need to have a correct perspective of His love. We need to understand that the Scripture says God is love but never says love is God because love is of God and love itself is not God.
Love is only one of His many attributes even though it is the greatest beside faith and hope as explained by Apostle Paul in 1 Cor 13. It is the first fruit of the Holy Spirit and it encompasses all the commandments of Christ. I believe God’s love can never fade away because it is in His nature to love, however, I believe it can be diminished by our consistent rebellion.
For example, if we willfully reject His Son and the work on the cross. Surely this will break His heart but it will also provoke Him to wrath and diminish His love in you. The Scripture tells us in Hebrews 6:4-6,
For it is impossible to keep on restoring to repentance time and again people who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have become sharers of the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the coming age, and who have fallen away, as long as they continue to crucify to themselves the Son of God and to expose Him to public ridicule. And again in Hebrews 10:26-31, For if we sin willfully (voluntarily, willingly) after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He who despised Moses' Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who has said, "Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the Lord." And again, "The Lord shall judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The act is call apostasy. The word “apostasy” means: defection from truth (properly the state) - falling away, forsake, backsliding, turning away, draw back, an overturn, subverting, rebellion a person who would not hesitate to sin.
We can diminish God’s love by such behavior. These are God’s people who have tasted His love but have turned against Him because of their love for the world and sinful pleasure more than His love. 1John 2:14-16, I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
These people their hearts were hardened and their consciences were seared towards the conviction of the Holy Spirit who is also the Spirit of Grace. The Scripture warned us that in the last days many Christians would fall away first, just before the coming of the Anti-Christ. They were enticed by the love of themselves, the love of money and the love this world. (2 Tim: 3)
Other examples are grieving and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and lukewarm towards Him. These are willful acts not out of human weakness but rather they are being deceived by the enemy. Mark 3:28-29, truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven to the sons of men, and blasphemies with which they shall blaspheme. But he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never shall have forgiveness, but is liable to eternal condemnation. Blasphemy means to vilify: belittle, speak ill of, run down, libel, defame, rail on, revile, speak evil and speak impiously (disrespectful) of his nature, attributes, and works. So we have to be careful of what we speak lest we sin in our own foolishness.
In regards to the grieving of the Holy Spirit, A W Tozer has this to says: In his book The Counselor, 51-52 he says, and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption - Ephesians 4:30. Because He is loving and kind and friendly, the Holy Spirit may be grieved.... He can be grieved because He is loving, and there must be love present before there can be grief. Suppose you had a 17-year-old son who began to go bad. He rejected your counsel and wanted to take things into his own hands. Suppose that he joined up with a young stranger from another part of the city and they got into trouble. You were called down to the police station. Your boy and another boy who you had never seen sat there in handcuffs. You know how you would feel about it. You would be sorry for the other boy but you don't love him because you don't know him. With your own son, your grief would penetrate to your heart like a sword. Only love can grieve. If those two boys were sent off to prison, you might pity the boy you didn't know, but you would grieve over the boy you knew and loved. A mother can grieve because she loves. If you don't love, you can't grieve.
Another area that could diminish His love is in Revelation 3:15-19 the Spirit of the Lord tells us, I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold, or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, I am rich, and I am made rich, and I have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from Me gold having been fired by fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, and your shame and nakedness may not be revealed. And anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. I, as many "as I love, I rebuke and I chasten." Be zealous, then, and repent! The rebuke doesn't sound so loving, isn’t it? Nonetheless, isn't this is because He loves us that He chastises us? So, that we may repent?
We often hear that GOD IS HOLY AND HOLY IS GOD. This could be described interchangeably. However, according to the Scripture we could call God a Holy God but NEVER A LOVE GOD. The reason is because holiness is the main characteristic of God so much so it has become known as His name. The entire heavenly hosts know this and worship Him by this attribute. Revelation 4:8, Isaiah. 6:3, and the four living creatures each one had six wings around, and within being full of eyes. And they had no rest day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty," the One who was, and is, and is coming! They did not say, love, love, love, Lord God Almighty, the One who was, and is, and is to come. The last part of the sentence is extremely important because it tells us that He is the same yesterday, and today and forever. He never changes for He is a Holy God. This is the most distinctive character of our God. Thus, He poses this demand to His children, “Be ye holy for I’m holy”.
In addition, we are taught by Jesus when we pray, we must first address the Father by His holy attribute. We must know Him not only by His love but who He really is. Love is just what He gives to His children. We must accept Him just as He accepted us without any condition. In this way, it will help us to know Him more intimately.
To sum it up, I would like to quote from Mike Taylor and A W Tozer:
“There’s a reason that the Wesley and Whitefield used to start by preaching God's holiness: it's an absolutely necessary foundation for understanding his grace and his love. God's holiness and our sinfulness is the backdrop against which God's love is seen. What would be so special about God forgiving our sin if he didn't care that much about it? Grace is so wonderful because it is God's response to something that he utterly, utterly detests, not something he is merely unenthusiastic about. If God were merely loving but not holy, then he would be soppy (overly sentimental or affectionate). But because God's holiness burns so hot, his love is shown in all its power.” – Mike Taylor
“Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards decline along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.
Before the Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, ‘What is God like?’ and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is, and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind.” - A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (Harper Collins: San Francisco), 1961, p. 4.
The only way to know God is through His word and reading it with a right attitude and accept what is written there without reservation or a preset idea. Don't try to explain away by reasoning but rather seek Him more thoroughly through the Scripture. Prayer is another key. If we don't understand certain portion of the scriptures we need to ask of Him. The Holy Spirit is our teacher and He is ready to lead and guide us if only we ask! Sometimes, He will answer almost immediately. Other times, He will show and reveal Himself to us through life experiences to confirm His word.
We must not let human imaginations, emotions, or even experiences to influence our thinking about Him. Otherwise, we may easily ended up sweeping away by every winds and doctrines created by man to draw us away to another gospel, and thus, another God.
Related: Chastening Love
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