Rom 13:10; "Virtue-love works no evil to a neighbor; therefore virtue-love is the maximum fulfillment of the law.

Believers who have this virtue love do not, and will not put themselves above the law in any facet of their lives.

We have seen that the basis for all relationships is virtue love, so last time we began a study of the Doctrine of Love.

We stopped last time with the idea that personal love for God establishes the capacity to love others. Our thoughts are directed toward the one we personally love in the context of our personal love for God.

God's love therefore is the Source, the Pattern, and the Basis for Human Love.

God is eternal, infinite, and perfect. Therefore His love is eternal, infinite, and perfect.

Since God is love, always has been love, and always will be love, God does not fall in love, nor can God's love be compromised or corrupted in any way. The incorruptibility of God's love becomes the basis for stability in human love

Because God is immutable, His love does not increase and His love does not diminish. This means that any form of human failure or inconsistency cannot change God's love.

None of us are perfect. Most of us fall in love based on compatibility, but in the back of our mind without thinking about it we often assign perfection to the one we love, and when they fail we are unable to deal with that failure properly.

Because of this, what we consider to be "love" often becomes the basis for many of the problems in life. Actually, these problems should not be assigned to the word "love" because what is being described as love not really love.

It's actually arrogance or lust or lasciviousness or a defense mechanism. The word "love" is often used to describe these things that are not really love.

Because of this "love" becomes a cover for all kinds of failures, flaws, and weaknesses. This makes, the transitive verb "love" one of the most abused words in our language.

We don't really have any synonyms for it, and no way to express degree, so the word "love" is used to describe it all.

Love can never be successfully directed apart from truth. This means that since God's word is truth. John 17:17; Love can only be successfully directed in view of God and his word.

God's truth is based in Divine establishment, the Gospel, and Bible doctrine. The type of love we are to have as believers in Jesus Christ is not based on any human standards. It is to be based on God's standards.

This means that we cannot be in a state of ignorance of Bible doctrine and have love for God the Father or the Lord Jesus Christ. This means that only those believers who are in fellowship with God have the necessary capacity for love.

Personal love for God is virtuous; personal love for human beings is virtue dependent.

When God is the object of the believer's personal love, it is classified as virtue-love and referred to by the Greek word "agape"

Personal love is only a virtue when the spiritual skills of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the cognition of doctrine, and the execution of the PPOG are functioning in the believer's life.

Impersonal love for all mankind is the basis for problem solving in human relationships. Not only is virtue-love a problem-solving device for the Christian life but also provides capacity for love, life, happiness, grace-orientation, and thanksgiving.

Some Scriptures that discuss this virtue love include:

1John 2:5; "Whoever guards the Word, truly in him, the love for God has been perfected." You guard the Word by always keeping it as your number one priority

Jude 21; "Keep yourselves in the love for God." You do this by keeping Bible doctrine as your number one priority.

In Matt 22:36; our Lord was asked what was the great commandment in the Law. He answered in

Matt 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your thinking." He goes on in Matt 22:39; to say "The second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We see from this that Love is based on how one thinks.

James 1:12; "Blessed is the person who perseveres under testing, because when he becomes approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him."

James 2:5; "Listen, my beloved brethren, did God not choose the poor in the world's estimation but rich in doctrine and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?"

Eph 6:23; "Harmony among the brethren and virtue-love with doctrine from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ."

Personal love for God the Father emphasizes the virtue of the object. Emphasis on the virtue and integrity of God as the perfect and virtuous object eliminates arrogance in the subject and brings about the genuine humility that results from doctrine circulating in the thinking.

When the believer loves God the Father, their motivation is compatible with the virtue of the object, not the merit of the subject.

This means that all personal love that has virtue begins with God as the object. There is no virtue in personal love that is directed toward human beings.

This includes personal love in friendships, romance, and marriage. Personal love as it is related to the human race depends on the virtue of the object for its validity and for its reality

The only way to insert virtue and integrity into personal love for mankind is through the adherence to the laws of divine establishment for everyone, and in addition for believers only, the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit, Bible doctrine circulating in the thinking and the execution of the PPOG.

God personally loves the believer. At the point of salvation by grace through faith alone in TLJC alone, every believer passes the point of propitiation and becomes the target of maximum divine love, 1John 2:2;

Because of the imputation of God's own perfect righteousness, God can love every believer with maximum love in spite of the believer's spiritual status, 1John 2:9-10;

The categories of love include:
The love of the Father for the Son, John 15:9;
The (impersonal) love of God for the human race, John 3:16;
The (personal) love of God for believers, 1John 4:19;

The (personal) love of believers for God, Rom 8:28;

The personal love of believers for God includes personal love for God the Father, occupation with Christ, and fellowship with the Holy Spirit, 2Cor 13:14; "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love for God [the Father], and the fellowship with the Holy Spirit be with all of you."

The (impersonal) love of believers toward others, John 15:12ff. Matt 5:44;

The personal love of believers toward others takes the form of romance and friendship. This personal love is based on one's attraction to the object, or one's admiration that is directed toward someone else from your own standards or compatibility.

"I love you," means the emphasis is on the object that is attractive or admirable to you. Because there is no emphasis on the subject in personal love, there is potential for trouble. Anyone can "fall in love".

This means that personal love is a problem-manufacturing device that produces problems that can only be solved by the problem-solving device of impersonal love.

But impersonal love doesn't even occur in the believer until they reach spiritual self-esteem, the first stage of spiritual adulthood and even then it's relatively weak.

It is not until the believer reaches spiritual autonomy that impersonal love is stable. Not until spiritual autonomy does the believer have maximum use of impersonal love because impersonal love is the problem-solving device that is proven in momentum testing.

Falling in love or making a friend creates a potential problem because the object of love is not perfect. Sooner or later, that object will be a source of people testing in the form of irritation or outright antagonism.

This means that one of the biggest sources of problems in life is to fall in love or make a friend because personal love is a source of people testing.

Without understanding this there is a tendency to idealize the object of our love by creating unrealistic expectations. Since no one is perfect, personal love doesn't have a chance if there's any idealization of the object of our personal love.

No one is perfect. People we love disappoint us, frustrate us, and turn against us because we're not perfect. They may also unintentionally hurt us in some way and become a source of suffering.

Sometimes it's our fault because we are arrogant, jealous, bitter, selfish, possessive, sulking in self-pity, functioning in inordinate competition or it can be the fault of the object for the same reasons.

The problem is that neither the subject nor the object is perfect. Therefore, we conclude that when God commands us to love all believers and all mankind in general it is not personal love.

It is impossible for a person with an old sin nature to love successfully with personal love unless the object is perfect. The only case where the object of the believer's love is perfect is their personal love for God that comes from metabolized Bible doctrine.

This means that the only personal love that has virtue is the believer's personal love for God, because God is perfect.

The Believer's Personal Love for God is described in John 4:19; "We love because He first loved us." This verse establishes precedence in love, God loved us first.

God has three categories of love. He has personal love for the other members of the Trinity and for all believers because they each have His righteousness. He has impersonal love for all mankind in the status of spiritual death, and he has divine self-esteem which is God's love for His own perfect righteousness.

Personal love is only a virtue when directed toward God because the only perfect object for personal love is God.

Personal love for God the Father is motivational virtue for the advance in the PPOG the Church.

All three categories of personal love for God are problem-solving devices. 2Cor 13:14;

The filling of the Holy Spirit is problem solving device number two as well as the being first spiritual skill. Personal love for God the Holy Spirit or fellowship with the Spirit is the means of loving both God the Father and God the Son.

Rom 5:5; "And confidence does not disappoint us, because the love for God has been poured out in our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

Personal love for God the Father is problem solving device number six as well as the motivational virtue for the protocol plan of God for the Church.

Occupation with Christ is problem solving device number ten as well as the priority solution to the problems of life. Gal 2:20; Phil 1:21;

Personal love for God can only exist through the spiritual skills: the filling of the Holy Spirit, cognition of Bible doctrine, and execution of the protocol plan of God.

Cognition of doctrine can only occur when the believer is filled with the Spirit in one the following conditions.

Being filled with the Spirit when hearing Bible doctrine taught by the communication gift of pastor-teacher.

Being filled with the Spirit when hearing Bible doctrine in conversation or when reading Bible doctrine in a book.

Being filled with the Spirit when Bible doctrine is metabolized or converted from gnosis or intellectual knowledge into epignosis or spirit taught doctrine in the soul.

Being filled with the Spirit when Bible doctrine is being circulated in the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness.

We see that personal love for God comes from the metabolization of doctrine in the following passages: Phil 3:7-8; Col 3:1-2; 2Tim 1:13-14; 2 Pet 3:18;

This means that no matter what they allege, if believers do not love the Word of God, they do not love God.

Maximum love comes from the structure that is built from the metabolization of doctrine in the soul that responds to God's love, Eph 3:17,19; Phil 1:20-21; 1John 4:17-18;

Since the object of our personal love for God love is God, and God is invisible, we must perceive God somehow. We can only perceive Him through His Word. Therefore, it is impossible to see or love God apart from knowledge of Bible doctrine, Psa 119:165,167; 1Pet 1:8;

Personal love for God the Father is most effective for believers in spiritual adulthood, because spiritual adulthood implies that the believer has a maximum amount of Bible doctrine in their stream of consciousness.

Spiritual adulthood begins with cognitive self-confidence with spiritual self-esteem.

Spiritual adulthood continues with cognitive independence, that results in spiritual autonomy.

Spiritual adulthood reaches its peak with cognitive invincibility from spiritual maturity.

Rom 8:28 "We know, therefore, that to those who love God, He works all things together for good, even toward those who are elected according to a predetermined plan."

This verse does not apply to every believer. It only applies to those who love God so it only applies to believers who are advancing in the spiritual life through the PMA of Bible Doctrine.

Emotion and stimulation are not love because love requires capacity and emotion and stimulation do not. Personal love for God is the basis for happiness and enjoying life, as well as for capacity for life. Deut 30:16, 20;

When a believer reaches the point where they have enough doctrine, and from that doctrine, capacity in the soul to love God the Father, then God the Father begins to work everything in their life toward the objective of absolute good.

Love was designed to go with capacity and integrity in the soul. Love is based upon integrity, virtue, and capacity.

Personal love is very selective. The object is something or someone that is attractive.

Personal love in the human race has attraction but no built-in virtue so personal love depends on impersonal love for strength. If you have impersonal love for all mankind, then you have the capacity for personal love for a selected few. The secret to personal love is impersonal love.

Bible doctrine in the soul is how impersonal love for others is developed.

The place where circumstances are being worked out for the absolute good is the PPOG.