“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
These Two verses have a deep and powerful meaning, it is the the conclusion of what Jesus said to the Pharisee in Matthew 22:37-40;
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
"All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments", let that settle in for a moment, Loving G-d first and loving your neighbors fulfilled "all" of the law? It takes care of the entire book of Leviticus with all its decrees and punishments?
Jesus in Matthew 5:17 said:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them".
Jesus's love for us fulfilled the law, leaving us in a state of grace as Paul teaches in his epistles. But how did Jesus love us? From the fall of Adam and Eve we as humans have been at odds with G-d, so G-d in order to reconcile his most beloved of creation chose to live among us in human form. The prophet Zechariah prophesied in 12:10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
That's a deep love, to subject himself to walk again with his creation and experience in human form the human experience. Did he have to? No. He is G-d, but he had to, because he is Love (1 John 4:8). How much does he love? Ephesians 3:17-19 says:
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
So getting back to how much Jesus loves me? He came to experience my life, he accepts me in with all my faults, he heals my heart, he became my servant, he healed my illness, he washed my feet, he cried with my sorrow and laughed with my joy. He called me by name even tho I am just a grain of sand in a vast dessert.
How much does he love me? By spilling his blood on the tree, he took my curse, washed my sin, clothed me in white. Made me worthy, He adapted me to his family, welcomed the prodigal son. He put a crown upon my head, and rejoiced in heaven, he conquered my death giving me life, calls me brother, sees me as a son.
How much does Jesus love me? He gives me his spirit, and charges me with authority, he made me a member of this royal priesthood, and custodian of his creation.
How much does Jesus love me? Romans 8:38-39 says: "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord". That's is love.
He commissioned us in Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. Freely he gave his authority and freely he loved and lived by example, freely he has told, no commanded us to be like him. Love, serve, heal, cry, embrace, laugh, morn, pray, rebuke, forgive, lead, and even die for him and or our neighbor, for that's what he did, for that fulfills the law, for that is the base of our grace and mercy.
How well do you love and does it shine in a dark world?
well done!
ReplyDeleteThank You.
Delete