In Matthew
22 we read of the expert in religious law, who approached Jesus on behalf of
the Pharisees, who sought to trap Him with this question: "Teacher,
which is the great commandment in the Law?" We all know the answer
Jesus gave him straight out of Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall
love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your might…"The second is like it, Love your
neighbour as yourself. "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and
the Prophets."
Kremannymi: depend,
hang upon; it is translated various ways but means to be referable to as an
ultimate principle. The ultimate principle of scripture is love God, love your
neighbour. The guiding principle, the
foundational principal of all scripture is love.
The Law of the
Kingdom of God is Love. It is
represented by the Green candle & the covenant with Moses to whom the Torah
was first given.
So, before we move
forward we need to clarify the word love ~ agape in the Greek. The best
definition of love is found in 1st Corinthians 13.
Verse 6 is
variously translated as
· does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the
truth[NASB]
· Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
[KJV]
· Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
[NIV]
· it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the
truth. [ESV]
The word adikia can mean any of the following: injustice, wrong; iniquity, falsehood, deceitfulness but note it
is contrasted with the word Truth. So,
one of the defining characteristics of love is
Truth & according to John 17:17 Thy
word is Truth. Love will always adhere to scripture.
We now need to look at what is meant
by that because Jesus was pretty scathing about the Pharisees & Sadducees: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you
devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you
will receive greater condemnation…[Matthew 23:14] among several other verses .
Make no mistake. These were men committed to
the word of God ~ far more committed than your average Christian! They had committed to
memory all 39 books of the Old Testament, including the full texts of Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and Deuteronomy.
However, the
Sadducees & Pharisees were harsh. It
has been said of them they majored in the
minors. In other words, they focused on
minor points while ignoring the great spiritual truths. They & Jesus knew exactly the same scriptures. They read
the same book but reached completely different conclusions from what they read,
so much so that Jesus chastised Nicodemus: Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?
See they knew about God;
they did not know God.
So, we have a delicate balance to walk because Love is not
harsh. It is patient & kind, yet it
may have some harsh things to say on occasion. Jesus certainly did!
We have seen this recently.
Some people, in the name of love, are accepting of some very
unscriptural practices. Some people, in
the name of Truth, become very harsh & unloving.
The Law, as it was given to Moses, was given for our benefit. How
we love is dependent on our understanding of the Law & the Prophets. Everything hinges upon that.
I read something recently that I believe sheds some light on how
we are to walk this out. Unfortunately,
I can’t remember the source.
We have the Old Testament.
We have the cross. We have the
New Testament. Jesus came to fulfil the Law, not abolish it. All of the Old Testament must come to the
cross & it will either come through the cross & be brought forward into
the New Testament, or it will end @ the cross. God’s definition of marriage was
brought forward. The command for justice & charity was brought
forward. The civic & ceremonial
ended @ the cross. The Moral Law did not.
This gives us a strong scriptural foundation to build our walk
on. There are immutables. There is also
an order. Love God first. You don’t get
to be wishy~washy on this one. John 14:15 If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
The more we know God, the more we will love Him & it is this
love that empowers us to keep His commandments.
When we love God the way He commands us then we will be empowered to
love people the way God says they should be loved. This helps us to
discriminate between sin & the sinner.
It has become cliched, but it is still a truth: we are to love the
sinner yet hate the sin. It can be hard to remember For, our struggle is not against flesh
and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places. Ephesians 6:12
We know…the god of this world has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God…2Corinthians4:4
This is why we are commanded to preach the gospel. It is not our job to condemn anyone. It is not our job to save anyone. That is solely the domain & the
prerogative of the Holy Spirit!
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of
both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the
heart. Hebrews 4:12
The Living Word of God will do the work we so
often try to take on ourselves of changing men’s hearts & we cannot do it
because we were never meant to do it!
This does not remove our responsibility for how we ourselves
live. We have been called out of the
world: it’s lifestyle, its concerns, it’s thought patterns For, all that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is
not from the Father, but is from the world. 1 John 2:16
We have spoken before about living a lifestyle that others find
attractive. In the midst of a world torn
apart by natural disasters, wars & rumours of war, climate change, all
sorts of unnatural deviations from God’s ordained order we are not to be
dominated by fear or controlled by anger @ the ungodliness we see all around
us, or feel defeated. We know that this world is still under the control of the
evil one & those whose minds have been blinded by him cannot see the Truth.
Isaiah 6:3 Assures us Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. And again, in Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard
your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
This is how Jesus was able to set aside His
glory & minister to sinners. This is
how He was able to forgive the very ones who nailed Him to a cross. This is how
He was able to fulfil the Torah & thus set us free from a legalistic
adherence to it.
His mind was stayed on the Father. It did not dwell on what was done to
Him. It did not dwell on
grievances. It did not even come up with
plans to change men’s hearts. Jesus
simply ministered to men’s needs. He did not condone sin. He did not justify it. He did not call black white, & white
black, sweet sour, nor sour sweet. He
did not call evil good & good evil.
He knew the difference. He lived
the difference himself. He called out
the sin but he ministered to the deepest needs of the human heart to be loved
& accepted.
John 5:19 Therefore
Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son
can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for
whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
The Law was given so that we could know we
couldn’t keep it, no matter how hard we tried.
The Pharisees & Sadducees tried.
They knew the Law. They tied it
up in knots, even to tithing the most miniscule of their herbs. They couldn’t
keep it because they relied on their own understanding. They did not know the heart of God & so
they missed Jesus. They saw Him breaking
*the rules* & decided He had to be wrong.
He could not be of God. But again & again, which rules are Jesus
breaking? He is breaking the man~made interpretations of God’s Law, rules about
keeping the Sabbath, rules about what you could & could not do on the
Sabbath, rules about who you could & could not associate with. He never, not once, broke God’s moral Law:
laws regarding fornication, laws about trusting God, the Law about loving God
first, loving God with everything in you. And He could do it because He had the
Spirit without measure & He was constantly alert & listening for the
Father’s directives.
Jesus has shown us how keeping the law is to be
done. The Scripture is our
touchstone. It guides & directs us but
we must be careful not to do with it what the Pharisees did & turn it into
a weapon to attack people. There are times to call people out on their
sin. Jesus did. There are times to
simply heal the sick, bind up the broken hearted, deliver the captives…Jesus
did. What to do when, comes from
listening to the Spirit of God & only doing that which He tells us to do.
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and
give you a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you
to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Ezekiel36:26/27
It is the
new heart that enables us to keep God’s commandments in the way He intended for
them to be kept. He didn’t need telling
that we couldn’t do it on our own. If we
could have done it on our own there would have been no need to give the Law in
the first place! No! We need the new
heart & that comes through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
See,
without the Holy Spirit we are still going to get it wrong. You can believe in Jesus Christ as your
saviour yet be completely devoid of the infilling of His Spirit & His
power. You can be sealed unto the day of redemption & have a form of
godliness while denying His transformative power.
Remember,
even as Moses was receiving the Torah God’s people were down on the plain
making for themselves a golden calf. So as we consider the covenant of the Law
let us remember its fulfilment was in Jesus Christ & His empowerment in our
own lives through His Holy Spirit & give thanks unto God who knew our
desperate need & made provision for us before we even asked!
No comments:
Post a Comment