Quote:
Originally Posted by love4truth
There seems to be a prevalent teaching of Witness Lee that all natural things are bad, and that God hates the natural. We who are Christians are supposed to hate anything that is in the natural world, no matter how good it appears. To Lee natural love is wrong, only love that comes from Christ is right. But if you are a Christian and you have the experience of love in your heart, how do you divide what is spiritual and what is natural? Is natural love wrong? Love of a mother for her children is seen even in the animal world. I cherish my family, my friends. Natural instincts that are good seem worthy to me. Why should Christians fight for good causes when they may be doing it in the natural? I am a born again Christian, but I do not insist good that I embrace be put under a microscope. Good is good and we should give thanks and rejoice because God created good. Good works do not save us, but they are important. What do you think? Can anyone explain to me just what Lee is trying to say in this teaching?
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Lee's teaching on natural love and affection is unscriptural. Paul criticizes those without natural affection (astergeo) in Rom 1:31 and 2nd Tim 3 :1-3 suggesting they are destined for God's wrath. More from this article on the four Greek words for love in the NT including stergeo:
https://www.icr.org/article/18306/
Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful” (Romans 1:31).
This phrase “without natural affection” is the translation of one Greek word, astergeo. It was a characteristic of many pagans of the ancient world. Significantly, it is also prophesied to be a characteristic of the humanistic pagans of the end-times. “In the last days . . . men shall be . . . without natural affection” (II Timothy 3:1–3). These are the only two occurrences of this word in the New Testament.
The word stergeo (“natural affection”) is one of four Greek words for “love,” but it is never used at all in the New Testament. It refers to the natural love that members of the same family have for each other. It is such a common characteristic of all peoples that there was apparently no occasion to refer to it at all—except when it is not present, when people lose their instinctive love for their own parents and children, and thus are “without natural affection.” One thinks of the widespread abortionism of these last days, as well as the modern breakdown of the family in general.
Another Greek word for “love” is eros, referring to romantic love, or passion. Like stergeo, eros also is never used in the New Testament. The other two words, however, are used frequently. Phileo, referring to “brotherly love,” occurs over thirty times. It indicates fondness, based on a community of interest with the person or persons so “loved.”
The fourth “love” word, of course, is agape, which is used over 300 times. This is the type of love called out of one’s heart by the preciousness of the object loved, the love that impels one to sacrifice his own interests for the benefit of the person loved. This is the love of Christ, who “loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). And this is the love generated by the Holy Spirit in the believer for “the fruit of the Spirit is love . . .” (Galatians 5:22). HMM