

THE CONCEPT OF LOVE BY JOHN ISHOLA OLAFENWA

INDEX OF CONTENTS

  * ### I NTERPRETATION OF LOVE

  * DYNAMICS OF LOVE

  * TYPES OF LOVE

  * FALLING IN LOVE

  * FUNDAMENTALS OF LOVE

  * BOUNDARIES OF LOVE

  * THE MARTIN LUTHER RULE

  * HOW TO MAKE THE CHANGE

INTERPRETATION OF LOVE

### One of the most misinterpreted yet important concepts in human history is love, the same love which made God to send His Son to die for our sins is what some people claim lead them into sin. For instance many people that claim to fall in love often end up committing fornication and adultery. If love is capable of causing evil, why did God command us to love one another? Could the same force that makes a man righteous also render him a sinner? Could there flow out good and evil from the same force called love? To answer these questions requires a deep knowledge of the word of God and the help of the Holy Spirit.

### The greatest of all the commandments of Jesus is that we should love one another; Jesus said that all other commandments hangs on love indicating that anyone who is in love will be able to obey all the commandments of God. A world that is full of love cannot experience any evil, and if everyone fall in love with one another, they will do no evil against one another. However, we all know that the world we live in is full of evil in spite of the high rate at which people are said to fall in love, hence it is clear that there lies an unraveled mystery behind the reason for the continuous spread of evil in a society where love has become so popular among the young and the old. This same mystery is what makes Christian parents to teach their children to avoid love at a young age. It sounds incredible and bizarre to see a Christian parent teach his/her child that he/she should avoid the greatest commandment of God until he/she is old enough to love. Love has no limitations and it is bidden on every child of God irrespective of age. It is so sad to note that as much as some parents strive to ensure that their children walk in the way of God, these children grow up to become wayward and disobedient to God, as it has become a common phenomenon all over our world. These parents spend much of their time making their children to understand the word of God but in the end, all their efforts may end up in vain, in such cases, what we do is to blame the child for not abiding by what he/she is taught at home or we blame the devil instead. However, it is not always the blame of the child, neither should we always blame the devil for everything we do. The major cause of the inability of children to stick to what they are taught at home is confusion. This arises as a result of the fact that in a bid to make children very holy, we make them understand that love is bad and should not be practiced at a tender age. These same children later come across many bible verses which command them to show love to everyone, as such, they become confused, they begin to realize that some of what their parents teach them run contrary to the word of God, at that moment, they begin casting doubts over the reality of what they are being taught, they feel like they are being deceived and the moment they are no longer under the control of their parents, they forget everything they have been taught and live their lives totally different from the way they were taught. This is a simple fact which most parents do not realize and until they realize it, they can hardly train their children to become true children of God. We should not forget that all the commandments of God, which parents teach their children are based on love, as such, parents cannot make their children to obey the commandments of God as long as they continue to make them understand that love is bad at a tender age. A house that is divided against itself cannot stand, therefore, teaching people to obey all the commandments of God and negate the very foundation of these commandments will be tantamount to destroying our own works with our own hands. No matter what we teach anyone about Jesus, they cannot follow it if they do not know how to love. No child or adult can do the will of God if he/she is not taught how to love. Once again, it should be recalled that the foundation of all the commandments of God is love and we must build every other commandment on this foundation. If this foundation is weak or absent, all other commandments of God cannot stand. Children should be trained in the way of God by first being taught about love and made to understand how to love.

### This is not limited to parents alone. Many Christian leaders are guilty of the same misconception. Love doeth no ill and it is not capable of causing evil. The cause of the spread of fornication and adultery in the world is not the spread of love; if love spreads, it cannot cause evil. The mystery that lies in this is the fact that, as love becomes more popular, sin spreads faster. This is a great mystery and until we unravel it, evil will persist in our world. Shall we simply accept the fact that evil is continuous in our world and there is nothing we can do about it? Shall we continue to live our lives in such a way that our coming generations will have no good to inherit from us? Are we to be comfortable with the continuation of extreme state of wickedness and unrighteousness which have characterized our world in spite of the spread of the word "LOVE?".We say no and we cannot continue sailing towards the rock. It's time to change the course of our journey and that change begins with the unraveling of the very mystery that makes evil spread faster when the word "love", is becoming more popular .

The very force that we describe as a mystery is no other thing but the misinterpretation of love. We have made our young ones to believe that love is all about fornication and adultery and we discourage them from celebrating the day we set aside for love, for the simple reason that we believe love can only be celebrated through unholy activities. What is fast spreading in our world is lust while love has almost gone into extinction. Many people who claim to fall in love have never known love and that is why they end up in sin. Often times, when I ask people of the definition of love, what they say is that love is a feeling of attraction towards the opposite gender. If this is the true definition of love and if love is simply about feelings, then how could it form the foundation of all the commandments of Jesus? Love is not limited to the opposite gender alone. It was designed by God to be expressed to everyone irrespective of gender, age or race. Jesus said that we should not only show love to ourselves but we should also show love to our enemies as well. When we limit our love to the opposite gender alone, we shall find it difficult to do well to the others and we shall also find it impossible to love God by obeying his commandments. Love has no restriction, it makes a man free from unrighteousness, love doeth no ill to his neighbor. When you love anyone, you show care to the person and you never hurt him/her. Love should be taught and practiced in every part of the world and to everyone. It is more than a feeling, it is the expression of care. Once we are able to correctly interpret love, we are just a few steps away from correcting all the ills in our society.

### In an ideal society, a boy should not find it odd to tell another boy that he loves him. However, we are living in an abnormal society where love is equated to intimacy, limiting love to the opposite gender only. As such, people find it difficult to love each other and the consequences of this misinterpretation are disaster, high rate of crime and all forms of wickedness against humanity. Love is powerful, it is the solution to all problems facing mankind, hence, everyone has to learn the true meaning of love and how to express love to one another. God expressed his love to us by first creating us in His image and then sending His Son to die for our sins. The disciples of Jesus expressed their love to mankind by preaching the word of God to the whole world in spite of the persecutions they suffered. True love endures suffering, it is patient, it does no evil, and it shows great care. If we want our young ones to live a right life full of righteousness, we must begin to teach them about love even right from their tender age. We must desist from telling them that they ought not to express love until they are ripe for marriage, no one is ever too young to obey the greatest commandment of God, therefore, no one is ever too young to show love. When the good people fail to teach the young ones about love, the opportunistic evil ones will teach them love as lust, and it is that wrong opinion that rules their lives forever.

### Let's take a look at this illustration. There was a young girl named Rachael. She grew up in a family with very high discipline, whose parents were highly religious. They trained her up as a good girl and she was very obedient to her parents and did all she was instructed without any hesitation. After a few years, she got admission to high school, her parents had often heard that many high school students engaged in many immoral activities, which is due to lust. However, as general maxims would have it, they believed it was because the students engaged in love at high school, therefore Rachael's parents warned her to stay clear of love issues at school and wait for the right time before engaging in love, they never mentioned to her the most important factor destroying the lives of the students, she was never told to avoid lust, rather she was told to avoid the greatest commandment of God, which is love. While her parents thought they were doing their very best to ensure that the devil does not take over the life of their child, they were actually helping the devil to destroy her life. At high school, Rachael never knew what it meant to love, she lacked the foundation for the commandments of God, all her obedience were based on the foundation of confusion, her obedience to God could not stand the test of time as love was lacking in her life. After a few years in high school, she had many friends who had many boyfriends, she tried to distinguish herself from them but they kept on advising her to join them in their lustful acts, with time she was told that there was no crime in love and it did not imply that she would have to engage in fornication, soon she began to have doubts in her mind and she decided that as a Child of God, she would search the bible to see what God says about love, she became surprised when all she found was that she should show love to everyone, at that moment, she was highly convinced that her parents must have deceived her when they warned her not to engage in love, soon she returned to her school and joined her friends in their lust which they had branded for her as love, her parents never taught her how to show love, they failed to make her understand the difference between love and lust, rather they taught her to desist from showing love. As a result, she could not distinguish between love and lust and since she had found out that there was no sin in love, she accepted all what her friends taught her to do. Blindly and in her state of oblivion, she plunged herself into extreme lust and soon her character began to diminish. She forgot all she was taught at home and plunged deeper into sin. She became distant from God and at the end of her high school, she had a become a part of the rotten generation of youths who engaged in evil activities to destroy their own soul in hell. She was well trained but she was never taught how to love. This is what happens to most young boys and girls, who are misled by their own parents into thinking that love is bad. Our society can never change for better until we realize the true meaning of love and youths learn how to show true love. No amount of scolding can make a child holy if he/she is not taught how to show love. All commandments of God are based on the foundation of love and parents must first lay that foundation before teaching their children the other commandments of God.

### Having established that the popular definition of love is wrong and is the major cause of the ills in our society, it is impertinent that we find the right definition for love. Love can be defined in two major ways, both having the same meaning. Love can be defined in its simplest form as the state of caring about yourself or others. Though very simple, yet this definition is capable of making anyone irrespective of age to fully understand how to properly interpret love and how to show love. Love can also be defined in a more comprehensive manner as the state of being deeply concerned about yourself and other people's physical, emotional/psychological and spiritual welfare. This definition is applicable to all forms of true love and it conforms to the word of God. This definition will be carefully explained below. By being concerned about a person's physical welfare, it means you are concerned about the way such a fellow relate with his fellow human beings, whether it is appropriate or not. This entails ensuring that you do not do any evil to any man. You can also be concerned about your own physical wellbeing by ensuring that the way you behave to your fellows is in accordance with the commandments of God. Anyone that has love must be holy in all his ways, such a fellow should not speak evil of his neighbors or cause any havoc to come upon anyone for any reason. If everyone can become truly concerned about their physical wellbeing and that of the world in general, no one will engage in criminal activities and everyone will live in peace with one another. The absence of love is the cause of the sins, crimes and wars that has engulfed our planet. People do not care about the physical wellbeing of themselves or that of humanity. Anyone that hurts his/her physical body does not love himself, a number of people derive joy from hurting themselves. Such is a drug addict who destroys his own body and derives his happiness from doing so. If many people are concerned about their physical wellbeing, they will not commit adultery or fornication because anyone that does so has exposed him/herself to a number of negative consequences, such as Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Caring about your physical wellbeing or that of others is the very first step in love. Jesus Christ exhibited this form of love by his miracles on the sick, the bond, and the dead. Even though the main reason why Jesus Christ came to the world was to die for our sins, which is the spiritual welfare/care, however love includes physical and psychological welfare as well, this is the reason why Jesus Christ healed many people that were in great need of help. He performed so many miracles on both the righteous and the sinners. Jesus Christ exhibited the highest state of physical care when he cried at the tomb of Lazarus before raising him back to life.

### Emotional/psychological wellbeing is also of paramount importance in love. This entails the way you think, your philosophies and how they affect you and your world. Before Jesus Christ came to the world, we all had many erroneous beliefs. Many people were caught up in various philosophies that could not save them from the power of the devil. This was due to the state of their mind. However, Jesus Christ was concerned about our psychological wellbeing, hence before laying down His life for us on the cross, he preached unto all men, showing them the right way and changing their way of thinking. Their beliefs and philosophies were all modified to conform to the way of God. Our beliefs controls what we do, it dictates our morals and our way of life. If our believes are wrong, we shall definitely live a wrong life, and when our believes are right, we shall be able to live the right life. This is the second aspect of love. if you love anyone and you perceive that the person's psychology is wrong, you should do your best to make the person change his way of thinking by convincing him/her to modify his believes to conform with the commandments of God. If you are not concerned about a person's psychological welfare, there is no way you can ever change his beliefs. In order to win souls for Christ and show love to everyone, you must be genuinely interested in the way they think, try to ask them questions and know what their beliefs are, only then can you know if they need to change their beliefs or not. You should also care much about your personal beliefs as well, you need to ask yourself if your beliefs are in accordance with the word of God or they are contrary to it. If your opinions are contrary to the word of God, there is no way you can show love, because anything outside the gospel of Christ is pure hatred and lust. No matter how occupied you are, you should find time to read the bible, by so doing, you will be able to think in the right way and you will find it easy to do the will of God. Don't get hooked up with popular philosophy books only, and avoid those which contradict the word of God, they would only mislead you and make you think in contrast to the way of your creator. Make the bible your daily guide and base all your beliefs and philosophies on its contents.

### The last step in love is spiritual welfare. This is purely about the way you live before God and how you do His will. Anyone that loves must be obedient to all the commandments of God. If you cannot do God's will, you cannot show any form of love. Your spiritual life must be built on a strong foundation.

### After changing our philosophies and beliefs , Jesus Christ laid down His life for us because He was deeply concerned about our spiritual welfare. It was the main reason why he came to the world, because all men had sinned and had no grace to make amends. Jesus Christ offered himself as a living sacrifice for all men, by enduring persecution and laying down His life for us. It was the greatest love that anyone could exhibit. However, there is hardly any man on earth that can die for the sake of a righteous man or a sinner but we can still express our love to people in so many ways by becoming genuinely interested in their spiritual life. The best way you can do this is to bring them closer to their Lord and saviour. If you truly love a person, and you discover that such a fellow is held up in sin, as a true lover, you must show your love to such a fellow by helping them to get over it through preaching, advice and prayer. The reason why the apostles dared the persecution and spread the word of God to all nations is simply because they cared about the spiritual welfare of other nations of the world. In our relationship with people, we should never get too occupied with many things in such a way that we shall have no time to discuss the word of God together and help one another overcome temptations and sins. One of the greatest reasons why great men of God do fall into the trap of the devil is due to lack of spiritual care from their followers. Many people believe their spiritual leaders are always perfect and we need not to worry about their spiritual life. The fact is, no one is perfect and we are all made to perfect each other's ways as it is written Eccl 4:10 "For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." Our leaders express so much love to us by spending their whole life teaching us the word of God, hence, we ought show them our own love by caring about them in all aspects of life.

### From the above, it is clear that love is all we need to live a perfect life, love does no bring any evil, and it is high time we changed our definitions and perceptions about love to include realities rather than the illusions of lust, which is being misinterpreted as Love. It is high time parents, guardians and leaders stopped teaching youths that love is bad and the young ones should not engage in love at a tender age. It is time young children be taught to show love to each other and avoid all forms of lust.

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# DYNAMICS OF LOVE

### Love takes 3 major processes and love is never complete without any of the processes or stages of Love. Love begins from within yourself. Before you can show love to anyone or love God, you must first show love to yourself. A man cannot do the will of God except he wishes to inherit the kingdom of God and this can only occur if he loves himself. The reason why children of God forsake the lusts of the world is because they love themselves and they want to be a partaker of the glory that God has set aside for his children. One of the main reasons for the woes in the world is the inability of people to show love to themselves, as a result, many of them engage in sinful acts that would destroy their souls on earth and in hell. If a man loves himself, he will always abide by the word of God and avoid the path of destruction. For instance, no man that loves himself would ever go to the house of a prostitute to commit fornication with her because in the end, the bliss of lust would be turned into agony and hatred, as such a fellow is prone to sexually transmitted diseases and crime, and the worst is that God cannot protect anyone that engage in fornication, as such, the fellow is at the mercy of the devil who would strike at him at anytime and destroy his body and soul. This rule is not limited to adults only. It applies to everyone on earth including the young ones. Our world is dominated by a high level of immorality among the young ones. Virginity is fast disappearing among young girls and most boys waste a great amount of their time in the bondage of the intimacy of dating. Love does not do any form of evil, he that loves himself would live a perfect life before God. At this point, it is important to consider how we can show love to ourselves. One of the ways of showing love to yourself is by being holy always, and this can be done by avoiding lust. We cannot avoid temptations in the world but we must always overcome temptations when they come. The world is full of evil things and evil people who will always want to turn our back to God. The devil also knows that the only weapon he can use against us is to push us into sin so that we shall no longer be under the cover of God. Furthermore, we should make the bible our guide. Reading the word of God everyday will make us to understand all it takes to live a righteous life and to be successful in all our endeavors. The amount of love we are able to express to God and other men is determined by the amount of love we have for ourselves. A man cannot give what he doesn't have, if you do not have love within you, you cannot give out love. One of the funniest things to witness is when a drunkard, a thief or a fornicator approaches a young girl and tells her that he loves her. It is just like a poor man who does not have a cent, offering to give a young girl, $1000. It is impossible for a drunkard who hates himself so much that he destroys his own soul with excess wine, to show love to anyone. Love is a precious diamond which a man can only give if he possesses it by himself. Love cannot be stolen, it cannot be acquired by force, and it is only acquired by obeying the commandments of God.

### The second and third stages of love are to love your God and love your fellow men and women. These two stages cannot be separated from one another, they occur simultaneously. If you do not love your God, you cannot love your fellows and if you do not love your fellows, you cannot love God. There is only one way under the heaven to express love to God, and that is, "OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS." Jesus Christ said this in John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments." God values his commandments above all things and anyone that wish to be a true child of God must obey his commandments. Disobedience to the commandments of God means that we hate him and there is no love in us, the commandments of God are not grievous and by being faithful we can obey his commandments. The commandments of God are comprehensively stated by St. Paul in Gal 5:19-21

### "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.

At this point, it is important to note the difference between self righteousness and obedience to the will of God. Self-righteousness implies biding ourselves to a set of rules and not by God's directions, many people do make this mistake and they end up in regret. When God directs us to do anything, we are not to question the reason for such and we must obey him in all things. An example of this is when God directed Moses to marry an Ethiopian woman contrary to the rules He had given them, Moses did not disobey the instruction and he did as he was commanded by God. However, Miriam who did not care about the commandment of God and believed in her self-righteousness, opposed Moses and wanted to raise the children of Israel against Moses, therefore God struck her with leprosy and she was a leper for 7 days. Num 12:1-16

### All what God demands from us is obedience to his commandments. He first loved us by creating us in His wonderful image and Jesus Christ expressed his greatest love to us by dying for our sins on the cross of Calvary, therefore, we must reciprocate His love by doing His will at all times. The last stage of love is to show love to our fellows, your love to God is never complete if you do not love your neighbors by doing good to them. Matt 25:45

### "Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

### God commands us to show love to all men irrespective of who they are to us. Love should be expressed freely and if all men can love one another, none would think evil, speak evil or do evil to his neighbor. True love is all we need to free our world from disasters and evil acts. A man that loves his neighbours cannot steal their possessions, or cause any evil to come upon them. Love is wonderful and it brings perfection. By loving one another, we can make a better world, where love and Joy reigns, where everyone can live in peace and harmony. The problems of immorality that our youths face today is because they do not love one another. If a boy loves a girl, he would not engage in any immoral activity with her. It is very disgusting when a man considers the great irony that occurs every day in the world, it is not new to witness a young boy promise to love a girl and in the end, he impregnates her and destroys her future. If our youths do not learn how to show love to one another, they would continue to engage in lust under the pretext of love. Any man that is able to love himself, love God and love his neighbours is a perfect man and worthy of the kingdom of God. Perfection cannot be achieved if any of these is lacking, if you do not love yourself, you cannot love your God and if you do not love God, you cannot love your neighbours, likewise if you do not love your neighbours you cannot love your God.

### At this point, it is important to consider how we can express love to people. The most important way you can show love to anyone is to teach them the word of God, if you truly love someone, you would not want them to end up in hell, therefore, the moment you discover anything about them that can take them away from the path of righteousness, you have to tell them the truth and use the word of God to change their lives for better. By this, you can help them avoid backsliding. In the case of a non-believer, since God wants us to express love to all men both sinners and the righteous, as Jesus expressed love to the sinners, if we have friends that are non-Christians, and we love them, we must preach the gospel to them, and do our best to bring them into the light of salvation. If you do not preach the gospel unto your friends that are non-Christians, it means you do not love them and you do not care if they end up in heaven or hell. The greatest love you can express to anyone is to show them the way to the kingdom of God. Any form of love we express on earth will end the very day we die, for example, if you express your love to a friend by feeding him anytime he his hungry, the moment he dies, the effect of your love on him has ended, but, when you bring your friend into the light of salvation, the love you have shown to them, will continue with them while they are alive, when they are dead and in the world to come. A Christian who claims to have love, who claims to be righteous and do not spare some times to preach the gospel is just like a fruitless tree. The salvation we have received is a great talent which we must use to win more souls for Christ. Jesus taught us about this in Matt 25. Any righteous man that do not gain more souls for Jesus Christ will perish in hell with his righteousness, just like the man who hid his talent. If we are the light of the world as Jesus said, then anywhere we are must be lightened up with salvation. Even as a young high school student, anywhere I was, I always showed my light by preaching to as many students as possible and even in some cases, my teachers. The same thing applies to all men, when you are at work, in school or at home, you must take advantage of any interaction you have with people by preaching the gospel unto them. If you are in a place and you fail to show the light, it means you are living in darkness and you would end up in darkness.

### 2 Tim 4:2-5 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

### 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

### 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist , make full proof of thy ministry.

### The major cause of the evil deeds in the world is the willingness of the good people to keep silent and watch the evil ones perpetrate their evil deeds, the willingness of the light to go off and allow darkness to take its course. This is evident everywhere we go. In the schools, evil students do not get too busy with their studies to corrupt their fellow students and give them wrong advice. Some even go to the extent of forcing their colleagues to join them in their evil deeds. However, it is so unfortunate that the good students in schools get too busy with their own affairs that they can hardly spare a minute to show love to their fellow students, they become too serious with their studies that they have no time to spread the light of the word of God to their colleagues. Their light fail to show up and the evil ones take advantage of that to add more darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Love is powerful and capable of driving out any form of lust, but when it is absent, hate and lust will set in and lead to destruction. This ugly trend of the good keeping silent is prevalent everywhere, not only in schools, it is the same in various working places, institutes of learning, research organizations, clubs and government institutions, the evil ones are everywhere, they take advantage of anywhere they find themselves to spread darkness and evil in the world, but most of the good ones have limited their light to the Churches alone. Many Christians believe the only time they ought to say the truth and show the love of God is when they attend Churches or Fellowships. This has resulted in the devil having greater influence on our world. Every opportunity we have, anywhere we find ourselves must be well utilized to exert positive influence on our world. No place or time is ever inappropriate to say the truth and show love. Henceforth, we need to change from our evil-silence. Silence in the presence of evil will only destroy our generation. We must build our moral values on the solid foundation of love. This is the greatest love you can show to your world. Do not ask your world to give you love, give it love and it shall return to thee in great manifolds.

### Love can also be expressed by giving to does in need. God created the rich for the sake of the poor. The whole for the sake of the disabled and the wise for the sake of the foolish. Though we came to the world as individuals, there is someone in your world, whose destiny is tied to your destiny and not only one, but many people who you are created to uplift from whatever valley they may be. Love should be freely expressed by giving without seeking for reward. Above all, love should be expressed by thinking no evil, speaking no evil and doing no evil to any man. These are the three fundamental principles of love which will be discussed in a later chapter in this book.

## TYPES OF LOVE

### Love has a general definition. However, it can still be divided into two main classes. And these are: Real Love and Apparent Love. The definition of Love stated in the first chapter applies to only true love.

True Love: This is any type of love that is acceptable before God and conforms with all the commandments of God. It is the ideal type of love which should be expressed by all children of God. True love is also divided into two major types; they are Free Love and Intimacy.

Free love: is the type of love that can be expressed by anyone irrespective of age; it is a form of care that is devoid of intimacy. Free love is not restricted to anyone. The absence of free love among our young ones is the reason why they engage in evil activities. One of the main characteristics of free love is that it is devoid of jealousy. In free love, if a boy loves a girl, it would not stop him from loving another girl, neither would the boy be jealous if the girl expresses her love to another boy. This is how an ideal society should be, but we all know that this is not the case in our world today. It is so common to see boys fighting one another and girls fighting one another because they do not want to share their lovers with anyone else, this is as a result of jealousy and extreme selfishness. Love should not be a bondage except for the sake of marriage, but our world has been turned upside down and no longer can we freely show love to our friends. We need to build a society where our youths can show love to everyone and share their love to all men has God commanded us to do. One day I was checking through a dictionary and I found out that a lover is described as someone you have a romantic relationship with, it is quite absurd to imagine that love is the greatest commandment of God, yet we define a lover as anyone whom we have a romantic relationship with. This is a total misconception and the true definition of a lover is anyone that expresses his love freely to his fellow men. Free love is the solution to the problems of lust and hate among our youths; it can be expressed to the same gender or the opposite gender contrary to the belief of many that love should only be expressed to the opposite gender. All parents should endeavor to teach their children how to express free love to all their fellows, when our young ones are able to express free love, our society will be free from all forms of evil acts which results from the bondage of lust. The love which Jesus Christ had for all men and women was devoid of jealousy and was not restricted; it is due to the freedom of this love that Jesus Christ extended His love to all races and genders. This is the first type of true love and the only type of love that is expressed without any form of jealousy. It should also be noted that free love was the only type of love that Jesus Christ expressed to the world. Jesus Christ never married, yet his love was the greatest of all love, however many parents teach their children not to fall in love until they are old enough for marriage. If love was meant for marriage only, then, it would not have been possible for Jesus Christ to be our greatest lover. Free love is what we need to heal the world.

Intimacy: The second type of true love is intimacy. This is a type of love which should exist between a man and a woman who intend to marry one another. Intimacy is not a sin if it is for the purpose of marriage and not anything else, but it has its restrictions. First, it cannot be expressed to the same gender, secondly it should be expressed at the right time and lastly it permits jealousy since the intimacy between a man and his spouse should not be expressed to anyone else, lest it becomes adultery. In spite of the limitations of intimacy, since it is the commandment of God that men and women should marry and reproduce in the world, it is necessary that true intimacy should exist in our world. Intimacy is not limited to those who have been legally married alone; it can also exist between a man and a woman that intend to marry each other. One of the greatest problems facing millions of families worldwide is the absence of intimacy in marriage, this leads to adultery and eventual collapse of marriages. True intimacy occurs as a result of emotional feelings which should be based on character and the will of God, however, in the world we live in today, many men get attracted to women for the sake of their beauty alone and not for the sake of their character. As a result of this, by the time they grow much older and the beauty begins to fade, these evil men abandon their wives and start seeking for other young girls to commit adultery with. The joy of marriage is true love between the husband and the wife. Lack of intimacy in marriage does not only lead to marriage failures, it is a vicious circle that breeds many more problems. The majority of children who become prostitutes, armed robbers, and criminals in the society are products of broken homes. For a child to succeed in life, he/she has to be properly trained by both the mother and the father, but if both have separated due to lack of intimacy, the children will suffer from lack of proper training as well as all sorts of trauma, this would eventually lead them to nefarious activities that would destroy their physical and spiritual life. The greatest weapon that can be used to curb criminal activities in our society is not any form of weapons of mass destruction but true love in marriage which would ensure that everyone in the society is properly trained at home which would enable them to behave properly and lawfully when they take up important roles in the society. True love which includes, Free love and Intimacy is what we need to rid our society of evil activities and create a world where peace, joy, righteousness and harmony would reign.

Apparent Love: Our society is dominated by apparent love which is better described as lust. Jesus Christ spoke against this in 1 John 2:15-17 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For 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. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

Lust is not a real love, it is hatred in disguise, hence, it is best described as apparent love, because it appears as love but in the real sense of it, it is nothing but hatred. Lust or apparent love can be defined in a simple way as hate under the pretext of love. In more comprehensive terms, lust is any form of intimacy that exists between two people who are neither betrothed to each other nor married according to the commandments of God. This definition has two basic meanings. The first is that any form of intimacy that exists between two people who do not intend to marry each other is lust, the second is that if intimacy exists between two people for the purpose of marriage and it contradicts the commandments of God, then it is also lust, a typical example of this is same-sex marriage. Lust is the greatest plague facing our youths today, and it comes in various forms such as fornication, adultery, lesbianism, sodomy, bestiality etc. The major cause of this is the general acceptance of many young ones that intimacy without marriage is right, this has driven out all forms of free love in our society, and our youths can no longer express love freely to one another without intimacy being tied to it. This is most pronounced in dating. Millions of youths worldwide have bounded themselves in intimacy at very young ages without having marriage in mind, the consequence of this is that many of them are too young to handle such relationships and it eventually leads to fornication. In my high school, I learnt many things about the involvement of youths in intimate relationships. I got to understand that most of it was borne out of pure lust and often ended up in all forms of heartbreak, disappointment, and loss of focus. I tried much in the past to advice youths against it and I often realized that most of the girls engaging in such relationships derived little or no happiness from it. Majority of them which are being forced into dating often lose their moral values and develop many bad habits that destroy their lives. One of the major factors that cause this is the craving of every young boy and girl to express love and feel loved. Each time, young boys and girls come across people of the same gender or the opposite gender that has very good characters. They naturally appreciate such people in many ways. In the case of the same gender, what results from such appreciations is pure love which is free from jealousy, however when it is the opposite gender, many youths end up expressing lust instead of love. This is because, when a girl or a boy loves another fellow of the same gender, he cannot feel jealous when the love is extended to anyone else; however, due to the role of dating in friendship involving opposite genders, jealousy is always predominant. In simple words, dating is one of the major forms of lust since it involves intimacy without any aim towards marriage. Lust is not limited to dating only. Another major form of lust, which is common to both the young and old, is adultery and fornication. Fornication refers to any form of romance between two people who are not married according to the commandments of God. It may take different forms such as kissing or sex. Adultery on the other hand is any form of romance between two people who are not married to each other with at least one of them being married to someone else. This occurs among married men and women only. Both fornication and adultery are great sins before God because romance is only meant for marriage only and God commanded us not to engage in fornication and adultery, anyone that wants to spend life after death in the kingdom of God must keep all the commandments of God, for no one that engages in fornication or adultery shall inherit the kingdom of God irrespective of your age or status in life for God is no respecter of anyone. (Acts 10:34 Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:)

### 1 Cor 6:9-10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

### God loves us all, and we must reciprocate his love by obeying his commandments. The love of the world which is described as apparent love or lust is what separates us from God, if we show true love to God and man, He shall reward us abundantly both in heaven and earth. Lust may appear to be bliss in its beginning but the end is bitterness and agony both on earth and in heaven. All what we need to follow God is patience and strict adherence to his will. Anyone that possesses the love of the world is a dead man or woman and he or she shall live to regret his/her decision to do away with his/her creator and go after the lusts/apparent love of the world. However, he that keeps him/herself for God and dedicate his/her whole body and life to God, shall live happily here on earth and in heaven. Our body is the body of Christ, we were created in the image of God, all other creations of God were not made in the image of God, but God favoured us above all other creations by making us in his own image. That great and perfect image that God gave us belongs to God, and every part of our body belongs to Him, therefore we must use it for His glory and His will. God's image should not be used for adultery or fornication. When Christ shall come at the end of the world, we all shall give account of how we have used the image of God, whether it is for his glory or for the satisfaction of the lust of the world. Anyone that is involved in any form of lust such as bestiality, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, paedophilia etc. cannot enter the kingdom of God except he/she repents of his/her evil deeds and learn to show true love. There is still opportunity for anyone in lust to change to love. The times are not yet gone for that young boy who has put himself in the bondage of dating to free himself and show true love to every boy and girl, likewise, any girl caught up in the trap of dating can still free her soul and express her love to anyone without any form of jealousy. It is never too late to change to love but the end is getting nearer, the best time to switch to true love is now. Jesus Christ is coming soon and our joy reside in us ruling with Him when He comes to take us home. Lust is the free invention of the devil but love is the ultimate commandment of God. The reign of the devil will soon end and anyone that follows the invention of the devil will end up in total destruction. It is high time we embrace true love and put an end to lust. Intimacy is to be reserved solely for marriage and we must learn to avoid any form of intimacy in friendship if it is not for the purpose of marriage.

### Rev 20:12-15

### And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life : and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

### 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

### 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

### 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

### In summary, love is of two classes, the first being true love and is made up of intimacy and free love, the second class of love is apparent love which is also called lust.

# FALLING IN LOVE

### One of the most common things people claim to experience in the world is to fall in love. Many youths and adults do claim to fall in love everyday and only a few people can claim not to have fallen in love. But it often surprises me when people claim to fall in love and they end up committing fornication, crimes and other activities that harms them. At this point, I began to ask myself, if truly love is the greatest commandment of God, how could a man fall into love and begin to experience the things, which are in lust? A young boy told me something one day that greatly surprised me. This boy had known me for being opposed to lust and any form of intimacy that was not for the sake of marriage, then he said he was surprised that I could fall in love simply because I often declared my love for my friends. It sounded a bit stupid to me, for such a long time, I had engaged in teaching people how to show free love and as a Christian, I knew well that love formed the foundation of righteousness, if this is true, why should anyone be afraid to fall in love? And why should we discourage our young boys and girls from falling in love? All these thoughts had been on my mind until a day when a friend of mine posted on facebook that it was not a crime to love but it is bad to fall in love at a young age, at that point, it dawned on me that the reason why people engaged in lust when they are said to fall in love and the reason why many people thought it was wrong to fall in love was because most people lacked understanding about what it really meant to fall in love. I realized that what most people interpreted as falling in love is actually "falling in lust". In order to solve this puzzle, I made an illustration to indicate the difference between falling into love and falling into lust. If we have two valleys, one named the valley of love and the other, the valley of lust. In the valley of love, God is the ruler, and everything in it is perfect. All that can be found in the valley of love is joy, happiness, righteousness, holiness and anything that is in accordance with the will of God. The valley of love is such a great place that is totally devoid of evil imaginations, words, or deeds. Any form of activity that takes place in this valley is perfect. God dwells in it and it is His throne and anyone that is in the valley of love is worthy of the kingdom of God.

### Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy , peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

### 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

### In the second valley called the valley of lust, the devil is the ruler of all; he decorates it with all sorts of baits to entice the simple ones. Yet all things in the valley of lust are evil only. In it lie all forms of unrighteousness and evil deeds. The valley of lust is composed of all the works of the flesh as summarized in the book of Galatians.

### Gal 5:19-21

### 9 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.

### The valley of lust is the valley of imperfection and no one in it can enter the kingdom of God. It is devoid of joy, peace, harmony and any good deed. Let us extend our imagination to include that a man standing on a platform in the air between the two valleys falls towards their direction, as we know that a man can only fall into one valley at a time, it is not possible for him to fall into the valley of lust and love at the same time. If the man falls into the valley of love, he is said to have fallen in love and all his ways will become perfect from that moment, he will no longer be capable of doing any evil and he becomes holy in all his ways. True love will rule his life and he will dwell in the presence of God. At that time, he becomes alive to righteousness and becomes dead to sinful acts.

### Rom 6:2-4

God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

2 Cor 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new.

### As such, falling in love is the will of God and anyone of any age is free to fall into love. Anyone in love can no longer experience fornication, adultery, pornography, or any form of evil. However, if the man falls into the valley of lust, he is said to have fallen in lust and from that time henceforth, he will continue to dwell in sinful acts, he will be moving from one sin to another and he is caught up in the kingdom of the devil. This is what occurs to most youths and adults in our world, they fall into lust everyday and lust becomes a vicious circle. Lust begins from a small bond to a very tight bondage. A young boy that falls into the little temptation of dating will continue in it without experiencing much agony, but with time he falls into the temptation of committing fornication with his girlfriend and she gets pregnant, in order to save his face, another temptation arises, which is to abort the child, he falls into this as well and in the end both the girl and the baby may die. This fate befalls most of our young ones who in their simplicity fall into the trap of the devil due to lust. The boy begins from dating and ends up becoming a murderer.

James 1:14-15

But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

### Having understood the difference between falling into love and lust, it is important for us to answer the question about how we can fall in love, and what can we do to prove that we have falling in love with someone or how we can distinguish between a man/woman/boy/girl who falls into love and a man/woman/boy/girl who falls into lust.

### To explain this, I would make another illustration. Let us imagine we have a young boy and a young girl in the same class in a college. The boy called Jack has been a friend of the girl called Jane for many months. Jack came from a highly disciplined home, and his characters were excellent and holy. He was a righteous fellow who did everything according to the will of God, in summary, Jack was a near perfect boy. However, Jane was imperfect in most of her ways, she never had the opportunity of being raised up in a responsible home, and she was wayward and dishonest. In spite of the friendship between Jack and Jane, Jack never cared about Jane's moral life, neither did he ever advise her to amend her ways and live a righteous life. One morning, Jack woke up, he unusually began to think much about Jane's moral life, and how it could lead her to total destruction, for the first time since they had met, Jack became deeply concerned about Jane's physical, spiritual, and emotional welfare. Therefore, he decided to help Jane overcome her imperfection. Jack got back to school and he began to advice Jane to live a new life. With time, Jane changed so much from her ways and she began living a new life full of holiness and righteousness. Soon, Jane began to guide Jack in any way she could, she began to help him overcome some of his imperfections as well. Both of them became counselors and helpers for each other. At that point, they are said to have fallen in love with each other. As a result of they falling in love with each other, both of them would become perfect in their ways and they will live a happy life in the love of Christ. This is the perfect example of how to fall in love. Falling in love brings perfection. Something important to note about falling in love is that it can originate from any gender to any gender. A boy may fall in love with a boy, a girl may fall in love with a boy, a girl may fall in love with a boy, and a girl may fall in love with a girl. It is important to note that Jack could fall in love with other boys in his class at the same time he fell in love with Jane, in as much as he shows great care to the other boys just the same way he shows great care to Jane. Due to the fact that Jack and Jane are bounded in Love and not in intimacy, Jack would neither be jealous if Jane falls in love with another boy nor would Jane be jealous if Jack falls in love with many other girls. The principles underlying falling in love can be summarized as follows.

  1. ### Falling in love is the fulfillment of the commandment of God.

  2. ### Anyone can fall in love irrespective of age, gender or status.

  3. ### A single soul can fall in love with many people at the same time.

  4. ### Falling in love is devoid of jealousy.

### In my high school, I had fallen in love with many boys and girls but there is a particular one I cannot forget. In my final year, I was opportune to have many of my juniors around me and I had many friends among them, one of such was a particular family composed of a young boy and his 3 younger sisters. They loved me so much and I loved them as well, the eldest among the sisters was in her final year in primary school, she was just 10 years old. The girl had a very bad habit, she often liked to ask for money from boys and she was always desperate to get it. I knew well that that habit could destroy her life when she gets to high school. She also had a friend who was one of my classmates, the friend was a very corrupt girl who often taught her juniors very bad characters. The young girl was so close to the corrupt classmate of mine and I once thought they were blood sisters. I loved the girl and her siblings and I knew that her habits and her friend could destroy her life. One day, I called this young girl and took time to advice her and explain a few things to her, I did so just once and I left her to decide on what to do. I had advised many boys and girls before and they hardly took to my advice but on this particular occasion, it was different. The girl hated her corrupt friend and was mad at me anytime she saw me discussing with her. The girl changed totally and she dropped her habit of asking for money from anyone whether boys or girls. Both of us became friends and on many occasions she would call me and advice me to avoid playing with girls. She often warned me not to allow them draw me into lust, she had fallen in love with me and was always advising me anytime she felt I was doing something wrong. In spite of the great difference in our class and age, we both spoke like mates and I knew that true love could not be stopped by gender or age difference. The simple care I showed by advising her had changed her life for better, and the holy spirit took control of her life. Love is free, powerful and great, it sets anyone free from sin. Anyone that cannot fall in love cannot see the face of God.

### John 15:17

### These things I command you, that ye love one another.

#  FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF LOVE

### True love is guided by three principles which can be said to be the fundamental principles of love. Theses principles are not new, they were clearly written in the bible but many people could not figure it out. Anyone that can abide by these principles would never fall into sin, he shall live a righteous life all the days of his life.

### Rom 12:9

### Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

### The bible verse above is the basis for the three fundamental principles of love. Each of these complement each other and by obeying all the three principles, you would become a perfect soul and no temptation would be able to overcome you. All the sins you once found difficult to avoid, would become a thing of the past. The fundamental principles of love are as follows:

### 1.) THINK NO EVIL AND THINK GOOD:

### Every action of man is a result of the thoughts of the heart, when the thoughts of the heart are pure, the whole soul shall be pure as well but when it is evil, the soul is rendered evil.

### Matt 12:34

### O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

### The reason why God destroyed the world the first time was simply because the thoughts of the heart of men were evil and therefore all they could do was evil.

### Gen 6:5

### And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

### It is for this reason that the first fundamental principle of love is think no evil and think good. The heart is the control center of the body, before a man can express true love of God, he must first decide in his heart to do that which is acceptable in the sight of God. When we fill our heart with positive imaginations, we have a high tendency to do positive things. If our heart is devoid of evil, we can neither speak nor do anything which is evil. All the wonders of science were products of positive imaginations to make the world a better place. Likewise, before a man can obey the commandments of God, he must first decide to accept Jesus Christ in his mind. The mind is the most silent but the most powerful and influential part of a man, even if you are holding a gun, in as much as your mind is pure, you would never hurt anyone with it. For instance, the difference between a policeman and an armed robber is that the thoughts of the heart of the armed robber is to destroy with his gun while the policeman thinks in his heart to protect lives with his gun. God has blessed mankind with abundant wealth and wisdom but what makes it difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God are the thoughts of his heart. A man may possess billions of dollars and if he decides in his heart to use it for the fulfillment of the will of God, his wealth would not lead him to hell. By thinking good, we shall be able to avoid temptations. When evil thoughts comes in to our heart, we should override it with positive thoughts, evil thoughts only set in when the mind is idle and devoid of good thoughts. When a man is sad and heart broken, if only he can think of the positive sides of life and the promises of God for him, he would live a happy life, but the moment he begins to think of the negative aspects of life, he might fall to the temptation of committing suicide. When we allow good thoughts to reign in our hearts, we shall live a happy life devoid of sin and sorrow.

### One important thing about thinking is that when our hearts are idle and devoid of positive thoughts, the negative ones would come in. Therefore, we must always occupy our minds with thoughts that can positively influence our lives for better.

### It is well known that what makes many young boys any girls to fall into lust is excessive feeling of attraction towards the opposite gender. Such feelings can destroy the life of anyone if not properly controlled, many boys get attracted to almost every girl they meet, and by falling into lust with them, they lose their self control and respect. It is always a pitiable condition as many of them can hardly help it. It is not only occurring among boys only, it is also very common among girls. Throughout my life, I had never heard about a girl getting greatly attracted to a boy because they are often restricted from expressing it, it was until when I became about 17 years old that I began to hear from girls who told me about their experiences. Being a fellow that is never tired of listening to the reasons why young ones at times go astray rather than condemn them, boys and girls often told me many of their experiences, which they find difficult to tell their parents for fear of being condemned rather than being helped. One of these was a young girl in her early teens. From my interactions with her, I got to understand that she often had an unusual feeling of attraction towards boys, it was something she had struggled with for long but it kept on growing by the day. Being a female, her problem was complicated, as it was impossible for her to express her feelings to boys, sometimes she almost did so but the thoughts of being a female made her keep her feelings inside. She had sleepless nights at times due to her feelings.

### She was helpless and lived with the trauma everyday. I often wondered what was the cause of her undue attraction towards boys until the day I knew her hobby. She had a very bad hobby of thinking. It was what she loved doing most. She spent less time engaging in things that could positively influence her life and most of the time, she loved thinking about anything thinkable. Because of her habit, she probably thought too much about boys around her, most of her thoughts being towards them, she developed an unusual feeling and this adversely affected her character. It is never bad to think but it should not be as an addiction. Most importantly, when we think, we should direct our thoughts towards positive things, which would improve our character. There are many youths in similar situations, who end up engaging in evil activities due to their thoughts. Idleness brings bad thoughts, thinking should never be an addiction and anytime you think, think positively. This kind of attraction may appear to be natural but, it is simply a product of what is conceived within the heart, it can only be controlled by thinking less about the fellow you get attracted to and thinking more about positive things of life such as the word of God. Many boys and girls who fail to realize the simple way by which they could overcome their feelings, spend a lot of time in self torture, especially when they can hardly express what they feel inside, and they often accept that they cannot help their feelings. The simple way by which we can avoid undue attraction to the opposite gender is by occupying our minds with many other things and making a decision not to think about the fellow you get attracted to, if you have been in such an emotional trauma for many years, the day you stop thinking about the fellow you are emotionally bounded to, you have set yourself free from such a bond and soon you will discover how easy it is to overcome a temptation. The mind is the control center of the body and whatever is done in it affects the entire body of the soul.

### In order to avoid bad thoughts and evil imaginations, we should avoid lazy habits of thinking too much when we ought to be occupied with productive activities. When we invest more of our time in reading, working, writing and many other such activities, by the time we decide to rest our mind and think, we shall have many positive things to think about. For example, a man that has been occupied with work and gets home to rest, tends to think more of his work and by that he avoids thinking too much about anything that can negatively influence his life. But when we invest all our time in thinking only, at a point, we exhaust all the positive things in our mind, as such, the devil will bring in evil thoughts and when the mind has fallen into the temptation of thinking evil things, the rest of our body is in peril of engaging in evil activities. Every man engages in evil activities when his heart is defeated by evil thoughts and then it is expressed in his speech and actions. There lies one way in our world to overcome temptations, and that is avoiding evil thoughts. Thoughts are simple yet, very powerful. They control the world and every war, reconciliation, invention, crime and achievement that has occurred ever since man was created originated from the heart of man. The Second World War could not have occurred if Hitler's mind had not fallen to the temptation of thinking that the Germans were the most superior race. Likewise, if Martin Luther King Jr. had not decided in his heart to defy all odds and make a change in America, racism would have remained in its highest state in the US.

### The next time anything comes to your mind, before accepting to think about it, ask yourself this question, "If men were standing by, can I speak out what I am thinking?" The true measure of any man or woman is what he thinks about, because no one can read his thoughts. We speak things that are acceptable to the world so they may think we are good, we do things to people so that we may be praised but we think things because it is what we are made of and it is what we really are, not what the world wants us to be, but what we made ourselves to be. If we want to belong to God or show love, we must obey the first fundamental principle of love, which is "THINK NO EVIL AND THINK GOOD." No man can show true love without obeying this principle.

### James 1:14-15

### But every man is tempted , when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

### 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

### 1.) SPEAK NO EVIL AND SPEAK GOOD:

The second fundamental principle of love is: speak no evil and speak good. The greatest thing that was ever made in the world was the creation of the heavens and earth and this was from the words God spoke, he made them with his words. It is also important to consider that the only unforgivable sin ever recorded in the bible is through the words of the mouth.

### Matt 12:31-32

### 1 Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.

### 32 And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.

### This is simply a demonstration of the power of the tongue. The tongue is a little member of the body but whatever it does can change lives for better and it can also destroy lives forever. Anyone that wants to show love must learn to speak only positive things that are acceptable to God, a mouth that speaks blasphemy, rude jokes, curses and erotic words cannot show any love to anyone. Anyone that loves himself, God and his neighbors must be holy in all his/her utterances. Many great disasters could have been avoided if only people had been more careful about the words they speak. We should not speak out things that can provoke people to extreme anger or things that can incite violence. Even when we are angry with people, we should control the statements we utter out knowing fully that we shall be accountable to God in the Day of Judgment for every single word we speak here on earth.

### Matt 12:36

### But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement.

### Good words make the world a better place and it promotes peace and harmony in the world. Jesus Christ and the Apostles changed the world into a better place by the words they spoke. If words are so powerful, then they must be uttered in the most positive ways so as to ensure that their fruits are good. No man can claim to be perfect before God when he is imperfect in his words. One of the effects of speaking positive and holy things is that it makes you closer to God. God is always happy with anyone who uses his tongue to make the world a better place, as such, He will bless the works of your hands and you will also have a perfect character before him and your tendency to enter the kingdom of God is much higher. It is also important to note that when you learn to speak only positive things, people will give you great respect and they will be willing to hear from you. By so doing, you have the ability to influence them for better and win them for Christ. Anyone with a bad tongue that speaks evil things will find it extremely difficult to win a single soul for Christ. The ability of a man to live in peace with his fellow humans is greatly determined by the words of his mouth. Speak out only those statements which are acceptable before God, do not speak out anything that is sinful to do. If you can't do it, don't speak it.

### Another way to maintain a positive tongue is to speak the truth always. No man can claim to love when his mouth is full of lies and deceit. God forbids lies and everyone hate to be deceived. When you lie to people, the moment they get to know the truth, they lose confidence in you and they will hardly believe you even when you speak the truth. Even if you will have to offend people in your bid to say the truth, speak it out, in the end, God will be by your side and the same people that once hated you for the truth will appreciate you in the end. Anyone that claims to love must learn to speak the truth in all situations. He that cannot speak the truth in a small matter cannot be faithful in a larger one. The devil is the author of lies and anyone that speaks lies is of the devil and belongs to the kingdom of hell. Anyone that speaks the truth is of Christ, for Jesus is the truth. Before speaking any word, we must first ask ourselves, if we were before the throne of Christ, can we speak such things? God loves us and he wants us to be perfect before him. The first two steps to attain perfection in life are; to think no evil and speak no evil. We are the light of the world, and anywhere we are, the light must reflect in our words. He that sees an evil act being done and speak not the good to counter it is as guilty as the doer. We must learn to speak good things in all situations and at all times. On many occasions, we find ourselves in critical positions where our words are capable of changing people's life for better or worse, one of such situations is when a friend of yours come to you to seek for advice on very important issues. I have been opportune to meet a few people who were drawn into lustful activities as a result of the bad advice of their most trusted friends, likewise there have been a good number of people whose lives haves been changed for better due to positive advice from their loved ones. We all are created to help one another and lift up anyone among us who falls. In view of this, we must learn to influence people's lives for better by telling them the word of God when they need it most and also ensuring that when they depend on us for guidance, we show them the light and do not darken their lives with evil counsel. Only when we do this can our light truly shine in the world. A man who lives alone without making positive impact on other peoples' lives is simply existing but not living. By just a few optimistic words, we could make a man that wants to commit suicide to change his mind and see that, life still offers him a lot to for him to continue living. By this, we could save so many precious lives that would have been wasted. We can also develop people's abilities by praising them for their good deeds and avoiding criticisms. Criticisms are evil as they kill peoples' positive sides, and they lead to resentment and destroy people's abilities. Every single talent in our world is made by God to make the world a better place to live in. Often times we find ourselves in a position by which our words can preserve or destroy these talents, then anything we speak will not only influence the life of the person we are speaking to, but will also influence the lives of everyone that will eventually benefit from the talent. We must learn to speak good things to people at all times, encourage them when they are down, give them the right counsel when they need it most and give them a reason to continue living. We should also learn to speak when we should and keep silent when we should, peaceful words brings peace to our world, and holy words bring holiness to our world. SPEAK NO EVIL AND SPEAK GOOD.

### James 3:2

### 2 For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.

### 3.) DO NO EVIL AND DO GOOD:

### No man can claim to be perfect except his perfection his reflected in his deeds. God would judge everyman by his thoughts, words and his deeds. Any man that claims to show true love must do good to all men and avoid doing any evil to them. Not only this, he must do good to himself because love begins from yourself. A man who does evil to himself by using harmful drugs, committing adultery and fornication e.t.c , cannot do any form of good to any man. When we learn to be perfect in our ways by doing that which is good always, we shall find it easier to do good to all men. Our body is the body of Christ and whatever we do with it must be in accordance with the commandments of God. We should not kill with it, commit fornication or adultery or use it in any way that can affect people's lives negatively. There are far too many good things that we should do with our hands than we should waste our time engaging in evil things. One of such good things is giving out to those in need. God has blessed many of us with wealth, talents and wisdom so that we may share them with those in need. As children of God, we must be selfless in all we do, knowing fully well that God would reward everyone of us of anything we give out both here on earth and in the world to come. Many people who do not have wealth often believe they have nothing they can give to their world. However, giving is not about money only, there are far too many things that a man can give apart from money. When Peter and John were going to the temple, they met a lame man at the gate of the temple, he demanded alms from them but the two Apostles were poor and they had no money to give unto him, yet they knew that they had something that was far more valuable than silver and gold and they healed the lame man in the name of Jesus Christ.

### Acts 3:2-8

### And a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;

### 3 Who seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple asked an alms.

### 4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.

### 5 And he gave heed unto them, expecting to receive something of them.

### 6 Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

### 7 And he took him by the right hand, and lifted him up: and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength.

### 8 And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.

### In our daily life when we come across various people, we must strive to do any good we can to them when we have the chance because we may meet them only once in our life time, therefore, any good we must do to them must be done now so that we may get our reward in heaven for our good works. He that loves his neighbour and sees him taking the wrong path will call him and advice him, this is part of doing good to everyone. In our good deeds, we should not expect to be rewarded by men but we should look up to God to reward us. Jesus Christ laid down His life as a symbol of His love for us without getting any reward from us except the reward God gave him by giving him a name that is above all other names.

### Phil 2:8-9

### And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

### 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name :

### We all must strive to attain perfection by avoiding that which is evil and sticking to the good, so we may reign with Jesus when he comes to take us home. Here is love perfected, when we think no evil and think good, speak no evil and speak good and do no evil and do good. Anyone that can obey the three fundamental principles of love is a perfect man and he shall live a happy life on earth and in heaven. In as much as we are all creations of God, made in His perfect image, any good or evil we do to anyone is being done to God and shall be rewarded by God.

### Matt 25:31-26:1

### When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

### 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

### 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

### 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

### 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

### 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

### 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

### 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

### 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

### 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

### 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

### 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

### 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

### 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

### 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

### 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

# BOUNDARIES OF LOVE

### For quite a number of years, I had known well about the way love should be expressed and the difference between lust and love. I always strived to express love to everyone but at a point in time, I came to realize that free love has its boundaries and anyone that goes beyond the boundaries of love will find himself in lust. Therefore, if we do not identify these boundaries, we shall find out that after falling in love, we may later begin to experience those evil things which are embedded in the valley of lust, this should not come as a surprise because both valleys are separated by common boundary and it is for this reason that a man can cross from the valley of lust to the valley of love likewise, a man can cross from the valley of love to the valley of lust. When free love is properly handled, we cannot cross to the valley of lust but when it is not carefully done, it will eventually result in lust. The feelings of love has its boundaries, anything that exceeds the boundaries of love is the feeling of lust. The transition from the boundary of love to the region of lust is preceded by temptation. No matter who we are and no matter how deeply we are rooted in love, the devil will always attempt to make us to fall into lust, he will bring various temptations and the moment we are aware of the boundaries of love, we shall be able to discern temptations from the normal feelings of love and by that we shall be able to avoid lust.It is important to note that the boundaries of love still lie within the three fundamental principles of love and this will be explicitly explained in this context. When a boy loves a girl or a girl loves a boy, he/she his free to do anything, I repeat anything to show his/her love for him/her in as much as such expression can be shown even if those involved are brothers and sisters, any form of free love which exceeds that which can be shown to a blood brother or sister is lust in action. The only form of love which permits anything that we cannot do to a blood relation is intimacy which is meant for marriage only. When you love anyone, before doing anything to show your love to them, ask yourself this question, "If this boy or girl was my sister or brother can do this to him/her." If the answer is no, then be sure that by doing it, you would be expressing lust instead of love. If a boy truly loves a girl, he would only do to her those things that he can permit another boy to do to his sister; likewise, if a girl loves a boy, she would only do to him those things that she can permit other girls to do to her brother. The moment you begin to treat a boy or a girl in a way you would not want your brother or sister to be treated, then you have exceed the boundaries of love and you have fallen into lust. Anyone that expresses free love without knowing the boundaries of love will end up fallen into lust with so many people. At this point, it is important to consider the importance of emotional feelings among youths. Even when you wish to express free love within the boundaries of brotherhood and sisterhood, due to the fact that those involved are actually not related by blood, undue forms of attraction will come in and in many cases, such feelings are not easy to control and those who get caught in such goes through a lot of trauma, many boys and girls often lose much of their morals and self control when such feeling overcome their strength. Everyone has his/her limits and the moment his/her feelings overcome such limits, he/she ends up engaging in lustful activities without being able to help it. This is the fate that befalls many young boys and girls, who in spite of their affliction in the hands of the unseen bond, still surfer a lot of criticisms, instead of being helped, many youths get criticized when their emotions overcome their character, feelings occur irrespective of moral backgrounds, and the end result is total devastation. When I first realized this natural fate that befalls every young boy and girl, I began to think of a lot of things which could solve the problem. I have always believed that the solution to every problem in the world still lies within the concept of love, after many days, it occurred to me that the solution to the problem of uncontrollable emotional feelings lies within the first fundamental principle of love which is think no evil and think good. I came to realize that the moment you stop thinking about the fellow you have such feelings for, the feeling would be gone. It works like a magic but it is real, even if you have been attached in an unseen bond to a man or lady for about 5 years, the moment you decide in your heart to stop thinking about them, you have become free from the feeling and you will never experience feelings for the person for as long as you do not think about them. Undue feelings of attraction only occurs when you get distracted by certain attributes in an opposite gender and all your thoughts are directed towards that particular individual, therefore, you actions and feeling are always directed towards that point, these create a virtual bond between you and the individual concerned. If this continues, at a point, you fall off the boundaries of love and end up in lust. Free love is great and wonderful; it sets a man free from sin, but if we do not stay within the boundaries of free love, the more we fall in love, the more we shall end up in lust. Never tell anyone that you cannot help your feelings, the solution is within you, it lies in your heart, it works like a magic but it is real, just take some time to occupy your mind with some other thoughts and resist any temptation to think about the one you feel for, if you can do this, you would set your soul free from the danger of hell posed by the possible fall off from love to lust.

### In summary, the boundaries of love entails that we should treat everyone like brothers and sisters and when we have an undue attraction towards anyone, we should stop thinking about them. By doing these things, we shall live a happy life full of the love of God and devoid of lust and hate.

### Recently, I got to discover that when you treat anyone as your brother or sister, the tendency for you to experience temptations towards them is greatly minimized, the simple reason is that when you call a boy or a girl your sister or brother, you have the natural feeling to prove to them that you truly regard them as your brother and sister, therefore, in whatever you think, speak and do to them, the thoughts of they being like your siblings will always override all other thoughts, as such you cannot have lustful feelings towards them since you cannot have such for your sisters and brothers. However, the opposite is the case in dating, since both partners almost regard each other as couples, in the process of trying to prove this status to each other, many temptations come in to their minds, they begin to feel like husbands and wives and this increases their tendency to engage in lust. Beyond the boundaries of free love lies lust.

# THE MARTIN LUTHER RULE

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that." These were the words of one of the greatest influencers of our modern world, a man who believed in the principles of love and the equality of all men before God. Unlike many other change activists whose efforts ended up in vain, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood strong and fought against racism till the day he died. He not only fought, he won the battle against racism. At this point, we ask ourselves, what weapon he used in fighting against racism for which he was awarded the noble peace prize. Anyone that has known much about this great man will be well aware that he and his followers never carried a gun; they never made any violent protest in their fight against racism and they never for once carried any weapon, yet they succeeded in changing the anti-negro policies of America. Martin Luther King, Jr. had only one weapon for driving out any ill in the society and that weapon was LOVE. He admitted in his noble peace prize acceptance speech that the key to solving all the problems of the world was love. It is therefore of great importance to apply the principles of this great man and see if they have the potency to solve the problems of human conflict. This brings the concept of the Martin Luther rule into focus. Even though, it is attributed to his name but Jesus Christ was the one that laid down this rule for solving all human conflicts but many of us could not interpret it properly, until the days of Martin Luther King who applied this simple method to solve all forms of racial discrimination in America.

### Matt 5:43-44

### Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

### 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies , bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

### Matt 5:39

### But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

### The Martin Luther rule is simply a clear explanation of these commandments of Jesus, it states that "DARKNESS CANNOT DRIVE OUT DARKNESS, ONLY LIGHT CAN DO THAT, HATE CANNOT DIRVE OUT HATE, ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT ." Many great conflicts among individuals, cities and nations of the world could be avoided by applying this principle. The major reason for the continuous spread of evil activities is retaliation. This would be explicitly explained in this context.

### In our daily life, we come across different kinds of people and due to a few differences in human behaviour, conflicts are bound to occur. The effects of these conflicts depend on the way we handle it. When anyone wrongs us and we do not retaliate back or do evil in return, by our willingness to accept insults without paying evil for evil, the conscience of the evil doer will fight for us and he would end up blaming himself for his deeds and he might even humble himself to ask for our forgiveness. It happens to everyone one of us, often times we wrong people in various ways, if they do not retaliate, we find ourselves being judged by our own conscience. But when we get retaliations for our wrong deeds, a kind of justification becomes present in our heart and we shall no longer think about the wrongs we have done, rather we shall focus much of our mind on the retaliation we received, as such evil breeds more evil, darkness breeds more darkness and wrongs breed more wrongs. Martin Luther King, Jr, gave it its appropriate description when he said, "Violence is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. " You cannot make a man/woman realize his/her wrongs by giving evil for evil, only when you learn to give love for hate can you make people realize their wrongs and make amends. We must learn the fact that when we add more evil to evil, we are gradually spreading evil in the society, and like a descending spiral, a simple conflict that could have been resolved between two men could become a conflict of thousands of people, which could result in the loss of so many lives. Although, self-defense has its place in human living, we shall find out that most conflicts do not require self-defense. Self-defense is only needed, when a little violence has not been resolved with love and it therefore turns out to be a greater violence in which self-defense is required to keep a man safe.

### One of those commandments of Jesus which many people find difficult to obey is "Love your enemies." To an ordinary man, it is absurd for a man to give any form of love to his enemies. However, it takes wisdom to realize that by hating your enemy, you are encouraging him to do you more evil and spread it to the rest of the society, but by loving your enemy, you give him a reason to change from his evil ways and realize his own foolishness. Violence is darkness which only the light of love can change. No matter how devastating a conflict has become, the moment you introduce the light of love into it, violence will be driven out. In our pursuit to make things better, we should apply the principles of love to counter hatred. Hardly can any meaningful change take place in our world through any form of retaliation or violence. Darkness will only lead to more darkness. In our world today, many nations have abandoned the instruments of settling conflicts with peace and they have embraced the use of wars and other forms of extreme violence to drive out evil. It is true that wars have succeeded in correcting many ills in our society and bringing order to our world. However, it is important to note that even after you have conquered violence with the use of war, the result will be hatred, and increased rate of crime. This is evident in many countries where wars have taken place. Often, after the end of such wars, criminal activities such as robbery, rape, kidnapping and terrorism will begin to take place. As a result, the aftermath of wars will be more violence except that it will be in a silent manner. You can murder the violent man but you cannot murder his violence, it will continue to spread silently. Even the most powerful nations of the world had never for a moment succeeded in using their instruments of wars to bring absolute peace to the society. When conflicts are resolved through peaceful means, both parties will end up loving each other and all forms of violence that results from wars will be avoided. In wars, some win while others are defeated. When love is used to drive out hatred, both parties emerge victorious. Forgiveness and reconciliation are the key factors to using love to resolve issues. We suffer more violence when we take revenge but when we choose forgiveness, we gain joy, harmony and peaceful co-existence. We should always have it in mind that we all sin against God uncountable times yet we ask for his forgiveness everyday, hence, we must learn to show love to one another by being merciful and forgiving. He that does not forgive his fellows cannot see God in face.

### Matt 18:23-19:1

### Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.

### 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.

### 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

### 26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

### 27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.

### 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.

### 29 And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

### 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.

### 31 So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.

### 32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:

### 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?

### 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.

### 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

### When we are involved in conflicts we should always remind ourselves of the rule," DARKNESS CANNOT DRIVE OUT DARKNESS, ONLY LIGHT CAN DO THAT, HATE CANNOT DRIVE OUT HATE, ONLY LOVE CAN DO THAT."

# HOW TO MAKE THE CHANGE.

### Love is the key to changing our world for the best but our great zeal and effort is important to open the door of salvation for all men and women. We do not need to wait for anyone to make the change. The key lies in the hands of everyone of us; we are the change we need, being children of light. God has bestowed upon us, the grace to set our world free from darkness. The world has witnessed the rapid rise in the number of change activists. However, despite their efforts, we are still deeply rooted in sin. This is simply because, many of the change activists in our world believe they can effect change through philosophy, but there is no salvation in philosophy. It can only improve our physical life but it fails to positively affect our spiritual life. A society that cares about its physical welfare alone will end up being destroyed by the spiritual. Here comes a big question, bothering the minds of both the young and old, "HOW DO WE MAKE THE CHANGE?" At this point, we need to look back into history in order to answer this question. From the creation of Adam, many great philosophers and religions had emerged but none of them was able to bring the people closer to God nor save them from spiritual doom. The hearts of men and women continued to devise various forms of evil and sin against God and humanity. All these continued unabated until the coming of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He brought great salvation and the world changed for the best. For the first time in history, men and women across all races and nations experienced true change and salvation. Jesus Christ laid down his life for all of us and He was given a name that is above all other names. Ever since then, there have been one and only one way we can make any positive change in our world. That way is JESUS.

### John 14:6 "Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me."

### There is no other way to make positive changes in our world other than preaching the love of Jesus. The change must begin from our own lives. Before any man can spread the light of salvation, he must be free from the darkness of sin. No one that lives in the darkness of sin can change the world for better. As individuals, we must obey all the commandments of God by doing His will at all times. No man is perfect but God demands perfection from us, therefore, being redeemed unto eternal life by the blood of Jesus. From henceforth, we should begin to make changes in our lives by desisting from the lust and hatred of the world and embracing the love of God.

### A great problem facing our world today is the inability of preachers to speak about salvation. It is evident everywhere, in Churches, Fellowships and various gatherings worldwide, most preachers only speak about improving our physical wellbeing but they keep silent about the very reason that Jesus came to die for our sins. The reason for this is that, they live a life that is in contrast to the commandments of God, therefore, being caught up in the darkness of sin, they find it hard to preach against sin. Before we can change our world, we must change our own way of life. Anyone that lives a holy life will be able to boldly speak the truth and help the children of darkness to become children of light. We are offsprings of love and anything we do must reflect the love of God. Only a fellow that abstains from the bondage of dating, the shame of fornication, adultery, lies, theft, murder etc can spread the love of God effectively. Jesus has bestowed upon us such abundant grace, to be called the Children of God. Yet grace does not imply that we continue in sin, grace simply means there is room for any sinner to repent and change from evil to good. God is willing to change our lives for better, if we obey him always. As parents, children, leaders and servants, we should begin the process of change by giving all our life to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and this we can only do when we abstain from sin.

### Change begins from us, but it is never perfect until we spread it to others. Anyone that lives a holy life and preaches it to others has a sure place in the kingdom of God. Freely have we received salvation and freely should we give it to those in need. A man who receives salvation and does not preach to others is like the man who received his

### talents and he hid it in the ground and when his master came, the master demanded from him the profits he had made from the talents was given. But unfortunately, he never gained more, he simply returned the talent to his master and he was put in bond and tormented as written in the Bible. Therefore, shall it be for anyone who received salvation and do not win more souls with it. Every fruitless tree is cast into the fire. Even, if you are the holiest man in the world, if you do not preach the word of God, you cannot enter the kingdom of God.

### When I was in high school, I had the opportunity of learning a lot about how many young ones were grafted into sin. It is a common practice for people to praise the good youths who in spite of the moral decadence among the youths have chosen the path of righteousness. Often, we condemn those youths who indulge in immorality, however, it is not always their fault. Many of the young ones were pushed into evil activities in ignorance. I came to realize that the good youths often get too busy with their own affairs that they fail to spare some time to help their weak brothers and sisters to attain perfection. However, the children of perdition never get too busy to mislead the weak ones. I grew up, seeing the silent war between the good and evil. In schools, places of work and everywhere else in our society, the righteous ones are silent while the evil ones capitalize on the silence of the good ones to corrupt the weak ones. If only, the good people can spare a few hours in a week to preach the word of God at any place they find themselves, the world would be a much better place to live in. We might be persecuted for preaching the word of God, but God would always help us overcome. When I completed my high school, something gave me a great feeling of happiness and fulfillment and I would share that great joy with you.

### As a young student, I often preached to my mates and they often hated me for it, but I never gave up. In my final year, I met a young girl who happened to be my seatmate. Her life was completely opposite to my own, every bit of her actions suggested she was totally lost in immorality. She had two friends, one of which corrupted her and often taught her bad things. Her reputation and character were so repugnant to me, but none of them discouraged me. I knew well from experience that the failure of some good people to tell her the word of God was the reason why her character and reputation were bad. For many people, this was not a fellow with which a good boy or girl should make friends with, but as it is written in 1Cor. 9: 19 "For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

### 20And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

### 21To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

### 22To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

### 23And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."

### I became her close friend and that made it possible for me to preach to her. With time, she changed for better and kept on improving everyday. One day she admitted that I and a few others have totally changed her life from what it was before, and yet it was not me but God's grace in me. By the time we parted, I was happy, as she was no longer the bad fellow she used to be, her character had changed positively and I felt fulfilled. If I had faced my own affairs alone, she could have gone much worse. The same applies to everyone. Many of those perishing in lust could have become children of God if some good people had dedicated some time to tell them the truth.

### It is time to make the world a better place and the only way we can do this is through Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2 Timothy 3:1-7

"1This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

3Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

4Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

6For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

7Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth ."

2 Timothy 4: 1-5

"1I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

3For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

5But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.

### John Ishola Olafenwa was born in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria on the 5th of August, 1995. He grew up as a teenager in Ilaro, Ogun State where he graduated from Auntie Kemi Model College. While in high school, he learnt a lot about the experiences of youths and the reasons behind the moral laxity in our society, this propelled him to put in a few efforts to help both the young and old live in a world where the love of God reigns. He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this book in order to put an end to the widespread misinterpretation of love and explain how love can be used to solve all the world's problems.

_Other books by John Ishola Olafenwa_

The Promise

Voice of The Knight

The Custodian

Sin No More

_Recommended Books_

_Checkout "_ A father's Wise Instruction _" And "_ You Have Every Reason to Thank God. _" by Bukola Olafenwa(Founder of_ Bukolapedia.com _)_

_Checkout "_ Alexandria and Lance _" And "_ Belonging to Christ _" by Ayoola Olafenwa._

_CONTACT_

_Website:_ john.specpal.com

_Email:_ johnolafenwa@gmail.com

_Facebook:_ www.facebook.com/john.olafenwa

_Twitter:_ www.twitter.com/johnolafenwa

_Instagram:_ www.instagram.com/johnolafenwa

_Email:_ johnolafenwa@gmail.com

# DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to the glory of the Almighty God, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

# APPRECIATION

My sincere appreciation goes to my sister Olubukola Olafenwa for the careful grammar edit of this revised edition. I also wish to appreciate my loving Dad, Mum and siblings for their great support, which ensured the successful publication of this book. I remain greatly indebted to all the youths and adults whose real life experiences have been of invaluable help in the course of writing this book. Special thanks to all my friends for freely sharing with me, their opinions and experiences.

# DISCLAIMER

All names used in the illustrations in this book are simply imagined by the author. In all the true life experiences written in this book, the author does not at any point, mention any name. Therefore, the author remains free from any claims by any fellow of any form of infringement on his/her fundamental human rights, or disclosure of the private information about him/her.

# REVISED EDITION

This revised edition of "THE CONCEPT OF LOVE", was edited by Olubukola Olafenwa(www.bukolapedia.tk). The contents of the initial publication differs from this only in grammar and a few additions to the first publication. Therefore, the contents of the first publication, remains valid except for a few modifications to the biography.

# SUPPORT THE AUTHOR

This book is distributed for free. You can help spread the word by supporting the author with your donations or sharing this book with your loved ones. To donate to the author, kindly indicate your interest in helping to distribute this book by sending an email to johnolafenwa@gmail.com. Any assistance rendered will be highly appreciated, remmember always, anything you give for the sake of the word of God, will be returned back to you in manifolds by our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

