Why can't I Love Jesus, Be an Athiest and dispise the 'Xtian" religion!
Simply, because "we love because He first loved us." You *must* be
"born again from above" before you can love Him. Now the English
language poorly differentiates between the different forms of love.
There was that movie out not too long ago that would have us believe
that Jesus "loved" (eros) Mary. This is the whole basis for that
Divinci Code thing. Now it is true that Christ called His disciples
His brothers. This indicates a philio love or a brotherly love, hence
Philadelphia or "City of Brotherly Love." But the Bible speaks of
another kind of love which it reinterprets to be Divinely defined.
This is "Godly love" or love which proceeds from God. It is this
love which is regenerated in man/woman at the time of confession
/conversion. This love naturally responds to the things of God. This
love naturally desires to please God. But this love does not in and
of itself produce the godly lifestyle and therefore bring peace. Paul
in Rom 7 declares this fact. Though having been born again and
now possessing the new desire to please God by the heart (cp. Lk
16:15), he often faulters and sins and does those things which his
new heart desires not. So love is not the answer as John Lennon
would have us believe. It is only part of the solution. The final
resolution is only to surrender one's life to being led by God in
the power of His Spirit. It is a complete denial of self love, self
power even after having been born again. Just a humbling oneself
must preceed justification, so too in our new walk with Christ. It
takes humbling, moment by moment, step by step.
To love Jesus from a Divine impartation of love is to naturally
to desire the things of God and to please Him as the ultimate
joy in life. What you seek in your title thesis is antithetical by
nature. You want to love Jesus? Then accept Him as He has
declared and exhibited Himself to be. Paul put it in an other
dynamic form by exhorting, "have this mind in you that was in
Christ Jesus." Read about that mind in Philippians 2. Christ's
love denied self. You must deny self if you are ever going to
actually love Christ in a truly God (as opposed to the warm
fuzzy feelings of men) accepted love. There are in the final
analysis, only two forms of "love." There is that which pretends
to gives in only the hope of receiving back and then there is that
which gives without any thought to self. i.e. it is totally selfless.
And to be selfless one has to be oriented toward God.
Picture two treadmills. You've been running on one all your life.
It is the treadmill that has a mirror at he head of it. Everything
you do, every place you go, every goal or object you've ever had
in your entire life has been with self in view. Can you accept
this?
But there is a second treadmil. It has a different goal or
inclination, that being God, not self. You have to get off of the
first treadmill to get on to the second. You cannot straddle
them. You can't run on the one while remaining on the other
because they are back to back. You can, while running on
the first, see the second behind you and be fooled to think
that you are actually operating with God in mind. But a
simple refocusing will reveal that you are still on the first
treadmill. People do this sort of thing all the time when they
put money in the offering plate or give money to charitable
institution, all sorts of "good" works. They fool themselves
thinking that they are "loving" God when actually they are
only serving self.
Do you understand what I am trying to illustrate for you?