Chapter 3

The Love of God That Solves

All Problems of Self-consciousness (spirit of devil)

and Sense of Belonging (spirit of Man)

1. Self-Consciousness (spirit of devil)

We used the terms self-consciousness and sense of belonging in the previous chapters. Self-consciousness is a personality (emotion, intellect, and will) which comes from the devil, and it focuses one to think of and focus unto oneself alone and makes one behave (act, live) for oneself only. It seeks pleasure that comes from the self as well (Gen 3:5-6). Self-consciousness achieves self-satisfaction.

This is totally opposite to the word of God. I think of and focus on myself, I behave for myself, and I seek self-satisfaction. This is the same as the instinct of animals. But the difference between animals and man is that man receives the consciousness of ego from the devil to only consider oneself. Therefore a man of the flesh (world) is:

Animal (instinct) + devil (consciousness of ego) = flesh (self-centeredness).

A flesh man can live with a family and neighbors, but he lives only for himself, so he causes harm and loss to others. When, for example, flies, mosquitoes or fleas come into a house, they have to be killed, because these insects give only harm to people. Even one’s own family and close neighbors will try to get away from such a person.

Because the body of the flesh man is of the earth and the devil, who is a consciousness of selfishness (‘I’), nothing of value will ever be produced by him even though he thinks, and lives for himself and he seeks his own satisfaction (self-satisfaction).

God said to Adam “With the hard work of your hands you will get your bread till you go back to the earth from which you were taken: for dust you are and to the dust you will go back” (Gen 3:17-19). A corrupt man can not achieve anything however hard he works, because he lives a deceived life by his self-consciousness (devil) (Gal 6:7).

‘I’ always focuses unto the self and ‘I’ lives a life for oneself, ‘I’ does not have anything to give or take, and ‘I’s (his/her) whole life cannot produce anything good, or anything useful. The reason is that all good things and useful things come from only God above (Jas 1:17). Anything good or useful cannot come from any man below.

Romans 3:13-18 Their throat is an open sepulcher; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: (14) Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: (15) Their feet are swift to shed blood: (16) Destruction and misery are in their ways: (17) And the way of peace have they not known: (18) There is no fear of God before their eyes.

A corrupt man therefore should be disappointed by/for him and call him as a ‘center of disappointment’. Even Apostle Paul disappointed by/for himself.

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?

So the Bible is telling us not to be deceived by one’s own self (Gal 6:7; Jas 1:16).

2. Sense of Belonging

Sense of belonging is a characteristic of a man. Sense of belonging is a life that gives happiness when one lives for neighbors.

But when a corrupt man is served by a neighbor, he cannot return the action with thanksgiving. In turn, his desire to be served by the other increases, which drives the man to want to be served more by the other, as does his dissatisfaction. A corrupt man usually generates hostile relationships with close people (Matt 10:36).

In the Garden of Eden, Adam loved Eve and confessed that she was ‘the bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.’ He could not get any useful help from her and he sinned after her enticement.

Adam followed Eve because he loved her, but he gained nothing. Even today, the similar tragedy is repeated. Some say love brings tragedy. It means that a person who loves another more than the other does always becomes a loser.

The Bible thus warns not to trust man.

Isa 2:22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for what account is to be made of him?

As we have looked, a man is a center of disappointment; however you may receive what you want from another man, you can never be satisfied, and the more you receive, the more your flesh desire grows in you, and you cannot return any good things to the man you have received from (Jas 1:15).

Thus any human love is false, and a man thus is a “center of false things” (Rom 3:4).

Mic 7:5 Believe ye not in a companion, put not confidence in a familiar friend: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.

One can give when one is in human love which is sense of belonging, but cannot receive anything good from others. Self-consciousness, which is for self only, cannot give anything to neighbors but deprives. On the other hand, human sense of belonging can make one to give but to receive, unless one deprives others.

3. The Love of God, the Holy Spirit

Since anything out of human being is either disappointment or false (lies), God gave us the Holy Spirit, so that we can live with the love of God; this is eternal life. The eternal life is a continuation of life of giving and receiving forever. Even men can continuously give and receive; it is possible only by the Holy Spirit.

Gal 6:8 For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life:

As stated before, since man of self-consciousness does not want to give but receive, the person will hurt neighbors and destroy the love-structure that has been established with neighbors (Joh 10:10).

If you love those you can love (son, husband, wife, etc.) with your sense of belonging, your life cannot be compensated as much as you have given, and you will reach to a point that you can not love them anymore (Rom 7:8). This is the reason why people disappoint and get disgusted with things in this world including their own spouse, children, neighbors, even their self (Jam 4:1-3).

This is why God is giving the Holy Spirit to us so we can love others with His love (Rom 5:5). Furthermore, the Spirit brings all things of the Son to us because the Spirit is the Spirit of the Son (Joh 16:14-15). We then can give all, what the Son had given to people when He was on the earth, to our neighbors.

It is as if all things were created by the Word when the Son visited earth. The manifestation of the Spirit fills us with all the benefits and useful things that we need. This is ‘the power of His children’ given to us so that we can have and enjoy all things from the Father God (1 Tim 6:17). The Holy Spirit who came into us, therefore, is the ‘Center who fills all’ (1 Cor 2:10).

4. The Origin of All Problems in this World

Everything that God creates is good (1 Tim 4:4). There is nothing that lacks. All things in the Garden of Eden was created and managed by God (Gen 2:19).

But man was changed in his personality (intellect, emotion, and will) when he listened to the word (spirit) of the serpent who enticed the man.

The objective in his thoughts was changed. The woman saw the tree of knowing good and evil (Gen 3:6). The tree appeared to her as a tree which is good to eat, good to the eyes, and that it would make her wise if she would eat of it(Gen 3:6). After this has happened, their thoughts and behavior were seeking their own satisfaction, the opposite of God who created them (Gen 3:7-13).

Thus the corrupt personally of the first man caused following. The earth became cursed and produced thorns and thistles, man rules over woman, woman desires man, pain of birth was added, man lives on hard labor and eats of the earth till death, and man returns to earth. These are mere outward appearances of the corruption inside of his personality that came to exist in his relationships between his body and circumstance, and between him and others (Gen 3:6-19).

Therefore all the problems we face in this world start from the corruption of our personality, namely problems of intellect-emotion-will. These appear in one’s life with one’s neighbors and circumstances as a) loss of direction b) loss of motions (forms) and c) loss of value (happiness).

One reason that there is no possibility of achieving all things for an individual is that every individual has come to this world with a partial personality: some have personality of intellect, some of emotion, and others of will. This aspect is reflected in the world as professionalism in people’s jobs.

In the world, intellectual people compete with other intellectual people (diverse licensing test programs or entrance examination for school systems or companies), people of will compete with people of will as well (sports games, competition for promotions, business competition among companies), and people of emotion likewise compete among themselves (music industry, art competition, etc.).

Furthermore, the ultimate value in the world is determined by money. Money is a standard measure of judging people’s ability and characteristics. This is why people are not trying to establish unity among others with love: They do not recognize any such need but also can not achieve unity with others.

Therefore love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim 6:10) and people are dashing to the other side of achieving one body in Christ and having a perfect personality. When any family or church is focusing its effort for making money, they will have no room for grace or love of God. Money generates problems in the world; it cannot solve any problems. Since mankind has been rejected from the Garden of Eden, people tried to get away from their ‘help-meet’ (companion) (Gen 2:18) and continued to be torn apart from each other.

This world does not have the love of God. People in the world, thus, are killing and destroying each other, and never try to form a perfect personality by being one (2 Tim 3:1-5).

Even in churches, people neglect the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and hire professionals to run diverse programs in order to stimulate partial aspects (intellectual, emotional or will) of the church people’s personalities. Churches are turning into the world of religion.

5. The Perfect Love is established only by the Gifts of the Spirit

The love of God is a love which avails all things to His beloved. The Father God gave all things to His Son God because the Father loves the Son (Matt 11:27), and He also gave all things to us, believers through the Son (Rom 8:32).

The reason why He gave us all is not for us to possess all, but in order to make us holy and blameless by giving and receiving in the love (Eph 1:4). It is as if the Son has received all from the Father and has transferred it all to us. The Son showed His perfect personality in that we can receive all things from the Son and give these things to others in the love, making our personalities perfect as well (Rom 8:32, 11:36).

The Christ in us brought all divine things of heaven to us, and we can give all things through this Christ Who is in us. If we receive anything from man or devil, we will be in their debt and will become their slaves, and we will lose freedom to give it to others (Gal 5:1).

We, therefore, have to receive a perfect love through the Christ Who loves us, and have to give in the love of God. It is love to receive and give in Christ, and it is the gift to give and serve through the Christ. Remember, our Lord Jesus received all things from the Father God and gave all things to us (Matt 11:27, 15:32-38, 14:16-21).

But the devil never gives to people. He deprives, kills, and destroys (Joh 10:10) all things which God created in His love. That is the world. Thus, there is no love but only murder and death in the world.

Any problems that happen in this world can be solved through Christ, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in us. This is overcoming the world (Joh 16:33; 1 Joh 5:4). The Holy Spirit directs us to the place where the love of God wants us to be. The Spirit creates great works through this directed motion because the Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord, and at the same time, He gives goodness to all of us who He works with (1 Cor 12:7).