One of the greatest fallacies among Christians is about love. Love is a matter of opinion. I have studied for some time what love is, because it is too easy to be confused by it.

For a period, I went to a city where the pastor and his wife received me. Their church was poor, chronically so, which is a problem. God does not favour poverty; poverty does not equate to spirituality. This is absurd.

You may have your own system of logic which you feel is good. In their church, one thing they did was make pork and cabbage dumplings for the elderly sisters. This is the most common filling. However, one elderly sister did not like pork and cabbage; she wanted fish dumplings, and the pastor made fish dumplings for her.

I was deeply impressed by this story. Whenever I tell it, I usually pause to observe people's reactions. Once, I told this to a Canadian couple who, in their traditional thinking, also thought it was a good thing. They said the pastor was very loving.

Do some of us also think this is very loving? What kind of love is this? I find this generation quite pathetic!

Love is Acting According to God's Word

We often see in Christian groups people posting photos of themselves visiting elderly people in the hospital. Some of our newer brothers and sisters, I hope I don't offend you, but I am not referring to you specifically. If it resonates, it is purely coincidental.

Is visiting these elderly people in the hospital loving? It is love. But to what extent is this common? In Christian circles, it is outrageously common. Many people do this, and everyone thinks it is good, but what is it? This is a bit harsh, but I want to challenge everyone's thinking. If it were Jesus, what would He do?

Once, I went to a place where they asked me to share on stage. What I shared was a bit challenging. I asked, Are you sure you want me to share? I might offend people. They said it was fine. So, I said, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

When we talk about this, we must first be someone who loves God. If we cannot love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength, isn't that just a sham? What is a sham? It is telling others to do something you yourself are not doing. There are too many shams in this generation. Don't be fooled.

Love is a great fallacy. What does it mean to love the Lord our God? To love the Lord our God is to keep and obey our God's commandments, decrees, and laws, to act according to God's word, to do what Jesus did. Jesus became flesh and came into the world to show us His words. What is keeping and obeying God's word? It is doing as Jesus did. How good is that? We love as Jesus loved. Jesus' love is healing people.

Jesus hates diseases. Therefore, Jesus bore all our diseases for us. By Jesus' stripes, we are healed. How well said! If we want to be a blessing to others, we do not preach a mere verbal Jesus to them; we preach a real Jesus. We must do what Jesus does. If Jesus were standing here, what would He have the sick do? He would have them rise and walk.

After I finished speaking on stage, the audience reacted negatively, because many of them were pastors and their members. Love requires a price to be paid. If you don't pay the price, can it be called love? They gave me a pause gesture. I asked for a few more minutes.

After coming down from the stage, the pastor said to me, Only you are right. I was deeply impressed. Do I really know what's right? I don't care. Since I preached to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength, let's make this clear. It is not just talk; it must be done before it can be said.

Do Not Mistake Pampering the Flesh for Love

In church circles, there are many people who engage in superficiality, unimaginably so. If such a person hears this, their reaction will still be a little intense. Do we need to rethink what love is?

Later, I concluded that there is a kind of love that pampers the flesh. Many people mistake pampering the flesh for love. The Bible says that to set the mind on the flesh is death. If the pastor is leading you to pamper the flesh, isn't he leading you to your death?

Never mistake pampering the flesh for love. If you are a parent, try pampering your child's flesh? If you spoil them, don't blame me for not warning you. Children cannot be pampered.

Some of us here who have children, pamper your children's flesh and spoil them, then come to me and say, Fix them for me. Do you think I am a deity? That I can touch your child and they will be healed?

In this world, things revolve around two things: keeping and obeying, and not keeping and obeying. Keeping and obeying brings blessings, and not keeping and obeying brings curses. Sometimes when I lead people in prayer, the Spirit of God will say to me, Are you going to oppose me? These problems they have are given by me.

People's problems are their own fault. Children pamper the flesh, and parents help them pamper the flesh. Isn't that courting death? The essence of education is to solve a problem: to deal with the flesh. The rewards of dealing with the flesh are very rich. We must understand that pampering the flesh is not love; it leads to death.

Speaking of the dumpling incident, what kind of thing is that? It is pampering the flesh. If you see someone and only care about their eating and drinking, that is a carnal person. Don't think I am detached from worldly affairs. When people come to me, I will treat them to a meal.

I don't go to fancy restaurants; small restaurants are fine. This isn't because I am not pampering the flesh, or not eating or drinking, or neglecting basic hospitality when people come. But deep down, we don't really care about eating and drinking.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you don't need to bring me gifts from afar. I really don't need them. If you can bring your problems, we can start doing some practical things and deal with the problems thoroughly.

Get Real, Get Rid of the Hypocrisy

Let me give you another example. There was a pastor's wife, we call her a 'Shimu,' who got cancer and it relapsed twice in six or seven years. The pastor went on stage to testify that their brothers and sisters were very loving, often bringing soup to the Shimu in the hospital.

Is that love? Where do I see that in the Bible? If someone has nothing to eat, give them something to eat. If someone has nothing to drink, give them something to drink. I think that's practical, but it doesn't hit the mark.

Can we guide people to the Word of God? We need to solve people's problems effectively, not just type on WeChat: I will pray for you, may God heal you. What's the use of typing a few words on WeChat? Are you willing to pray with this person properly and drive out the demons behind the disease?

The ministry has a characteristic: it is a work of conscience. Whether you do more or less, whether you work hard and diligently, or you don't care, it's all the same. There are a few professions in this world, such as teachers, pastors, lawyers, and doctors, that are works of conscience; whether you do well or not, it's the same.

For example, a teacher prepares a lesson diligently, and some students do well, and some do not. If you prepare casually, the good students are still good, and the bad ones are still bad. A work of conscience is invisible, unlike engineering, where if you build a plane that can't fly, it's obvious. If you don't do it with your heart, the plane will definitely have problems. Playing fake for too long is deadly.

A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. I started with just a couple of people and now I have trained a large group, all doing the real thing. Those who are willing to imitate me and follow me, they are also messing around there. What good is it to talk so much? Not much. There are genuine ones and fake ones, I don't care, because you reap what you sow.

There is true and false love. True love is using God's Word, using God's love. Our God's love is to rebuke people. The father disciplines the son he loves, that is love. But now many pastors are like Santa Claus, very kind, but you slowly understand, slowly you will understand.

If someone says something that makes you feel super comfortable, be careful. I have a characteristic, as the Apostle Paul said:

You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. (Acts 20:20)

I am not looking for any benefit for myself. I say things that are unpleasant, why? Because things that edify people are not so easy. It's the same with raising children. You must deal with the child's flesh for the child to grow up healthy.

If you raise children by indulging the flesh, thinking it's loving them, the result will be trouble. Some people lack love from childhood, so they love their children with the flesh even more, and in the end, they ruin them. Indulging the flesh is definitely not love; indulging the flesh will kill you.

After pondering for a long time, this thing is very interesting, gentleness is not compromise, and consideration is not love. We must gradually understand what the Bible says about this matter. The myths about love must be removed. We must get real.

This world revolves around keeping and not keeping the law. If a person gets cancer, what should they do? Especially in the ministry, because I speak the truth, cancer is a curse, a severe and great disaster, a long and lingering illness. Can a pastor who plays fake for too long not be cursed?

I often see some surprising situations. If there are sick people, the pastor has to visit them. Seeing that they are very ill, they say, I will pray for you. Then they pray a few words superficially, which is of no use. But they are very active in making soup.

As for what they say, that's even more fatal. Maybe they say this, maybe they say that, close enough is good enough, just giving people some comfort, such as: This is a blessing in disguise... Take good care of yourself, God will surely heal you...

Basically, no one says you need to repent. If someone is willing to say you need to repent, repent of what? Expose their problems, who dares to say that? Aren't they killing people with their words? This is all nonsense. We must speak according to the Bible, and not be afraid of conflict.

Our brothers and sisters often do not understand that many, many diseases are caused by evil spirits, but many people do not think so, do not like to hear it. You just suffer slowly, I don't want to say what you like to hear.

If you are a servant of Jesus Christ, you cannot please people, but only God. If you want to please people, don't be a servant of Jesus Christ. If you want to please people and be a servant of Jesus Christ, this is deadly, it is to be cursed.

Treating indulgence of the flesh as love is a very common absurdity. Indulging people's feelings and emotions is useless.

Since we are to be servants of Jesus Christ and become a blessing to many, we begin to learn one thing: in the Kingdom of God, build the church according to the Word of God, be a blessing to this generation, and pass on the love of God! Because what causes people to believe is not the wisdom of men, but the power of God!

May God bless everyone!