“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” (Romans 13:8-10 ESV)
Now the “love” being spoken of here is not human love. It is agape love, which is of God, because God is love. And it means to prefer what God prefers – all that is godly, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful, and obedient to the Lord. For the believer in Christ, it means preferring to live through Christ, embracing God’s will, choosing his choices, and obeying them in his power. So if we are loving others with this love we will do good to them and not evil, and we will even love those who do evil against us.
And if we are loving God with this love, we will not deliberately and habitually sin against the Lord and against other humans. We will not be those who are regularly engaged in sexual immorality of any kind, either. And we must remember Jesus’ words here when he said that everyone looking upon a woman intentionally to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matthew 5:27-30). For adultery really begins first in the mind and in the heart before it is acted out in physical ways.
And these other sins mentioned here can be committed in the heart only, and/or prior to the physical acting out of these sins. For we can murder people in our hearts via hate and feelings of and even plots of revenge. We can steal from others their dignity by how we view them in our minds and in our hearts. And coveting what others have that we don’t have definitely is a sin done in the heart and mind. And then these get stored up in people’s hearts, and if they can’t have what they want, they may become bitter.
So, this love is not based in our feelings and in our emotions. And feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are so uncertain, for they fluctuate. And it is not based in the objects of our love being worthy of our love, either. For this kind of love is loving towards others regardless of how they treat us in return. For this love is based in our actions, in how we treat other people. For we can say, “I love you,” to people but treat them with hate. So words only can be cheap if they are not followed up with action, proving the love.
Now I find it interesting that it says that we “owe” to other humans to love them with this agape love. For to owe is to be obligated (required). So, this is a command of God which we must obey. And there are multiple Scriptures which teach us that if we don’t love our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are not of God. One example can be found in 1 John 3:10. So, this is not optional. We can’t hold on to hate and unforgiveness and bitterness and resentment against others and obey and love God at the same time.
And loving other people is not all this feel-good stuff that so many people are presenting as the gospel message and as “love” today. For we are to love our fellow Christians and our fellow humans as Jesus loved us and as we are taught what love is in the Scriptures. And so this engages “tough love,” too, which involves speaking the truth in love to one another, and exhorting one another daily so that none of us are led astray by sin’s deceitfulness. And this engages attempting to rescue others out of their slavery to sin, too.
[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:11-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]
So what this means for us if we are loving other humans with this agape love, the way in which Jesus loved the people of the earth when he lived on the earth, is that we can also expect to be treated as he was treated. We can expect that if we love with this agape love, and we do what our Lord commands, that we will be hated, persecuted, rejected, falsely accused, abandoned, spoken evil against, and ostracized, all on account of us loving other humans like Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us to be saved.
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]
His Tender Mercies
An Original Work / January 26, 2014
Fear not! I’m with you.
Be not dismayed!
God watches o’er you.
Trust Him today.
He’ll lead and guide you;
Give you His aid.
He’ll love and keep you
With Him always.
Walk in His footsteps.
He’ll lead the way.
Trust in His love;
Believe that He cares.
He will not leave you.
Faithful He’ll be.
His tender mercies
Now you will see.
Fellowship with Him
Throughout the day.
Tell Him your heartaches.
He’ll heal always.
Rest in His comfort.
He is your friend.
Your faith He’ll strengthen,
True to the end.
https://vimeo.com/379513308
No comments:
Post a Comment