Talk of JESUS .com

Tag: love

  • Above the Golden Rule

    Above the Golden Rule

    Jesus said: “This is the great and first commandment.”

    Do you know what it is?

    You do not have to be a Christian to know the golden rule. We have heard it quoted by unbelievers as a standard of behavior that we should love one another.  But do not fall into the trap of the world in giving a commandment of God and an emphasis of Jesus a misplacement in your priorities.

    In fact, that is the trap the Pharisees and Sadducees often tried to bait with their questions to Jesus. Whatever His answer, they had a better one… or so they thought. In fact in this instance they probably had the Ten Commandments in mind.

    Matthew 22

    The Great Commandment

    34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

    36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

    37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

    39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

    What is Jesus saying here?

    In context of the Ten Commandments, the first four Commandments relate to our obedience to and worship of the Living God. These are the MOST important, yet even Christians have a tendency to overlook their importance.

     Deuteronomy 5:

    6“‘I am the Lord your God…

    7 “‘You shall have no other gods before me.

    8 “‘You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 9 You shall not bow down to them or serve them…

    11 “‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

    12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God…

    The second is like it… The ‘golden rule’ is a summary of Commandments IV – X, which all relate to how as God’s family we must love one another; yet first: You shall love the Lord OUR GOD!

    Matthew  22:36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

    37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment.

    Worship God with ALL your heart, soul, and mind!

    What does this “greatest Commandment” mean to followers of Christ Jesus who have a personal relationship with the Living God?

    Understand what Jesus tells us about our worship of the Lord here:

    • Heart -‘ kardia’ – ‘denotes the centre of all physical and spiritual life’
    • Soul – ‘psychē’ – the breath of life; the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.); the soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death (distinguished from other parts of the body)
    • Mind – ‘dianoia’ – the mind as a faculty of understanding, feeling, desiring; way of thinking and feeling; thoughts, either good or bad

    Does JESUS mean to say that GOD should be the center of our physical and spiritual life? Does our ‘lord’ mean to say that the seat of our feelings, desires, affections ought to focus on God? Does Christ imply that a Christian should think first about God and what God desires for our life?

    Yes. Yes. And yes.

    “You shall love the Lord your God

    with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

    This is the great and first commandment.

     

     

  • A Love Letter from John

    A Love Letter from John

    1 John 2: My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.

    But if anyone does sin,we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

    Beloved brother, beloved sister in Christ: you are going to sin. I do.

    We continue to need Christ as our advocate every day of our mortal lives.

    2 He is the propitiation [the means of appeasing the deserved wrath of God] for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

    3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

    We know that we know Jesus: not only knowledge, but an intimate knowledge and personal relationship with Jesus as our Lord.

    4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

    By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

    The New Commandment

    7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

    The old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

    Hear this now of God’s unfailing love for us.  Discern which brother and what sister now lives in the light. Understand who hides in the lies of the darkness and remains a slave of the sins of the world.

    9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

    10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

    11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes…

    We may not hate another of the family of Christ Jesus. For all who are saved are filled with His light. In us can be NO darkness at all.

    Do Not Love the World

    15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires [lust], but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

     

    1 John 3: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

    The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

    2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

    4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

    5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

    6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

    7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

    The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

    10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

    Love One Another

    11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another...

    18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

    The Apostle John, who with the Holy Spirit is also author of the Gospel of John, writes to the church of the high importance of the love of Christ Jesus for us.

    Do you believe? Do you know how much God has loved us from the beginning?

    For God sacrificed His Only Son on a Cross for you and for me.

    Will you become His righteousness?

    Dearly beloved, our Bridegroom sends you His love.

     

  • Am I the One?

    Am I the One?

    The Plot to Kill Jesus

    ‘The Teacher says, “My time is at hand; I will keep the Passover at your house with My disciples.”’

    In the evening, Jesus arrived with his twelve disciples. [from the Gospel of Matthew]

    Jesus has cleansed the Temple, clearing its courts of the money-changers and sinners selling the sacrifice of God for a price of no heavenly value. Now Jesus will cleanse the disciples, in preparation for the sharing of the meal of the Passover.

    Jesus IS the servant. His Disciples are being prepared for their exodus from Jerusalem and journey into all the world to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And like usual, they don’t even know it. Although they have been with Jesus for worship, prayer, meals, miracles and sermons for three years, they are clueless.  Aren’t we, who ‘go to church’ just like them sometimes?

    John 13:8 Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”

    Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

    9 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

    10 Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11 For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said,“You are not all clean.”

    Peter: quick to speak, quick to act, sometimes right, often clueless… like some of us who are bold in our faith, but don’t quite get it when we do not look to what the Lord wants for us to do (or to say or not say).

    Are YOU clean at the Table of our Lord?

    We will return to the scene of this First Holy Communion in a moment, but first, in keeping with our theme of the cluelessness of some followers of Christ (with no intention to betray our Lord), let’s look in on an after-dinner conversation.

    Luke 22:24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you.

    Does this sound familiar? Remember after their witness of Jesus transfiguration how James and John had asked to sit on Jesus’ right and left in His Kingdom? And how the other Disciples became angry at James and John for this? Yet Jesus rebuked them all and told them how this was not in His authority to grant.

    Jesus is with them, in a family meal. And here they are doing things like arguing and bickering. (If this was our table, they would probably ‘share’ their opinions with their ‘friends’ and ‘tweet’ their position to the world.)

    OH, JESUS?  Were You saying something?

    (Sorry, I got distracted.)

    It’s just a ‘family dinner,’ right? Just an ordinary every-day thing, right? I know Jesus and what He wants for me, right?

    OH, JESUS? What was that you said during the toast… that part before one of us is a devil who will betray you?

    (I would NEVER do that.)

     Mark 14:

    Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me.”

    19 They began to be sorrowful and to say to him one after another, “Is it I?”

    Have you ever been BETRAYED?

    I have…

    I think you have, too. Most of us have been betrayed by someone we love.

    And who betrays us? It is not those for whom we have no love, for they only betray their own.

    It is only the ones nearest to our love who can wound us mortally with the kiss of betrayal.

    Judas was a Disciple, a ‘follower.’ He was one Jesus loved, though the Lord knew who would betray Him. Yet the sin of Judas was against God our Father. This is why after David confessed his sin of adultery and came before God in complete repentance and acceptance of whatever punishment God our Father would impose on him that David said:

    Psalm 51:

    Against You, You only, have I sinned,
    And done this evil in Your sight—
    That You may be found just when You speak,
    And blameless when You judge.

    GOD will judge you! This is why you must be cleansed in the Blood of Christ Jesus. It is only by His grace that we are redeemed and saved from the Pit of Hell, the place of eternal darkness and the punishment we so justly deserve.

     John 1:16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

    Do you understand the seriousness of your adultery against the Bridegroom of the Church? Is your sin against the Blood of your Savior?

    If you have never fully understood the apostasy of Judas, look to how you who once walked with Jesus Christ (and called Him ‘Lord’) have turned away from the narrow path of His love, mercy and grace. Sometimes called ‘backsliding,’ often noted as ‘rebellion,’ apostasy is always a turning away from GOD as your Lord.

    Eleven Apostles at the Communion Table with Christ Jesus would betray their ‘Lord’ by word and deed, then later repent and witness forever to His faithfulness.

    One Apostle would turn against His ‘Lord,’ repent too late, hang himself after Jesus Crucifixion and be condemned for eternity to his just reward of Hell!

    Judas said he was a christian, but Judas had never given his soul to Jesus as his Lord.

    Mark 14 NKJV:

    20 He answered and said to them, “It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish. 21 The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had never been born.”

    Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper

    22 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them and said,

    “Take, eat; this is My body.”

    23 Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 And He said to them,

     “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.

    25 Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

    26 And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

    You have been part of the family and followers of Christ Jesus.

    You have shared in Communion of the Broken Bread of His Body and drunk the Blood of Jesus shed for your sins on the Cross.

    Yet not every one who says, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

    Do you, dear believer, do the will of Jesus, our Lord and Savior?

    For He will he look at one who did not truly worship Him and say, “I never knew you.”

    IF you do not repent, while it is yet today; IF you continue to harden your heart against the Lord, Christ Jesus: what will be HIS answer to you when you ask:

    ‘Am I the one?’