b. Many people approach love as somehow being an improvement on the OT law. It is not. I would say love is the commandments cranked up to the nth degree. Tell me not to steal my neighbors lawnmower, that I can do. Tell me to love the bum that I pass on the street corner and it becomes much harder. Wesley tried to dilute love down to a feeling in the heart. I don't think so, it is action.
c. Law serves three purposes:
-to provide moral order in the world. The law is written on peoples hearts and that is why in general we live in a society that doesn't run around pillaging, pillaging and burning. There are of course breakdowns, and that is where the courts come in, which were also ordained by God. Of course they are made up of sinners, so that is not the perfect solution.
-even with the law written on our hearts we rebel. Abortion, adultery, lying, stealing. The law is there to break the elect and show us that we are in the worst possible condition imaginable without the Gospel.
-the law is a schoolmaster for the Christian. This is how we should live, not to save ourselves but as a loving response to God who saved us from the curse of the law. In response to the command to love others, we should take a deep interest in, and take action on, what those around us are going through.
Love includes telling people the truth about sin (which is essentially flipping God off) the consequences of such, and the great rescue plan that was put in place from the beginning and finished one afternoon about 2,000 years ago.
Much wisdom in your words, Gamecock.
And I’m DEEPLY humbled that you’d bother and so thoughtfullly.
GC: Do we love our neighbors enough to do that???
Yes, I do. I’m just convinced in my spirit that the mode and manner will have to change, for me, on this religion forum. That’s rather unnerving and disconcerting. I feel a bit like a fish out of water and with a limb or two bitten off by a shark. But I think that’s just my humanness flailing about inwardly.
That mode of written and sometimes verbal expression has been a primary tool in my kit since at least 1964 . . . perhaps as early as 1962. I don’t know what it will be like in a major arena in my life without it. But evidently, it is time to see.
I do hope you and others will pray with me that God replaces it with something even much more powerful and effective. I would love it if the new tool would also be more universally attractive and delightful to all who it touches. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out otherwise. God usually has surprises for all concerned.
I any case, I shall long remember your kind and wise post. I shall assume, pretend that your vote would sort of go in a different direction than the current trend. LOL.
Thanks for being kind enough to reply. Blessings in your walk.
Hey, miracles occur. It wasn’t that long ago when our hands were on each other’s throats.