THE LAW OF LOVE
2008-09-27

Still not feeling up to par, but I'm better than I was yesterday morning. I started taking "Airborne" yesterday. I'm not sure if that has made a difference or not, but I definitely feel better.


Psalm for Today: Psalm 102

Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will remain; they will wear out like a garment.
You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
but you are the same, and your years have no end.
The children of your servants shall dwell secure; their offspring shall be established before you.
Verses 25-28

Did you catch that? I think I've always accepted the fact that the earth will someday be destroyed. But have you ever contemplated the thought that the "heavens" as we know them will also be destroyed? Wow.



Tabletalk Magazine

Weekend---The Law of Love

"Life is all about relationships." That is a true statement. Everything that we have to do in our lives revolves around some kind of relationship. "Our greatest joys and sorrows come because of relationships."

So, it stands to reason that, in order for us to live the way we should, we have to have our relationships prioritized properly. God has given us very clear instructions about this, believe it or not.

Remember a couple days ago, when the religous leader, in another attempt to trap Jesus, came at him with a question about the greatest commandment? Jesus gave him two answers. Enclosed in those two answers is everything you need to know about relationships.

Really!

The first answer: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

The second answer: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

People, this is revolutionary. It's radical. What kind of world would this be if all of God's people (everyone who considers him/her self a Christian) lived by these two principles? What if I loved God with every fiber of my being?

What does that mean? Jesus said, in John 14:15, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." But then John says, in 1 John 5:3, "And his commandments are not burdensome." So. If we keep his commands, but we grumble about it, are we loving him? I think not. To love God is to delight in his commands. Have you read Psalm 119? Take some time to read it one day. Out of 176 verses, I think there might be one or two that don't mention God's law in one form or another...precepts, commands, laws, etc. And most of those verses speak of some kind of love or delight for that law.

Here's how Augustine defined the love of God: "...the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and of one's neighbor for the sake of God." To love God is to enjoy Him above everything and everyone else and out of that joy to live in glad obedience to His will.

This is where John Piper comes up with his whole "Christian Hedonism" idea. I know peopel who literally hate that phrase, but I love it. In his groundbreaking book Desiring God, Piper makes the statement that he still uses: "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him."

In the matter of loving our neighbors, it is important to realize that Jesus is not commanding "self-love." Nor is he saying, as some have interpreted, that we can't love others properly until we learn to love ourselves.

Jesus assumes that we already love ourselves. Paul says, Ephesians 5:29, that "no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it." Natural self-love is made evident by the choices that we make in life to server our own interests.

So, "the health, comfort, companionship, and benefits that I desire for myself I am also to desire for my neighbors."

Finally, "all of this, of course, shows how completely dependent we are on the grace of Jesus Christ. We cannot love God supremely or people sincerely apart from His love first reaching us through the power of the Gospel. Only as we are so loved will we be set free to love in return."

This is amazingly good stuff.

Good enough that I'm ending it here for today.

Grace and peace, friends.



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