The Greatest Commandment

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:28–31)

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“So, all I need to do is love God and neighbor? Just as long is it doesn’t cost me anything.”
— Prototypical Response

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When looking at Jesus’ response, I cannot help but be reminded that the scribe, being associated with the Pharisees as a scholar of the Mosaic Law, would have known every commandment, statute, etc. that God had instituted for His people, as well as a complete body of knowledge codifying how a Jew would carry out each requirement. The doing of the Law within the framework of the added codes became the standard by which one could objectively demonstrate their level of devotion. The only problem is that the devotion was to themselves and their own self-righteousness.

Love is antithetical to self: it is sacrifice. And loving with all we are means sacrificing all. Who can do this? As we look to Jesus, we see the epitome of love for God and man. Notice how He speaks to His Father:

I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do.… I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. (John 17:4, 6)

And also to His disciples:

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. (John 15:12–13)

The next day, our Lord Jesus followed up His words of love for God and man with action as He willingly gave His life on the tree. This is how love manifests itself—while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). It is this love that we are to demonstrate.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 Jn 3:16–18)

Some may balk thinking that laying down one’s life is too difficult: how could a person do that without reservation? Yet that is exactly what God does in us because of Christ. Are we able to love God and neighbor the way He desires? Yes and no. In our own power, we are completely unable to love beyond what may be natural affections to those closest to us. However, it is because He first loved us that we are able to love Him and one another fully. Trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross, that ultimate sacrifice for us, we are enabled and empowered to love as God has loved us as we look to the final day.

Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (1 Jn 4:17–19)

We Should Love God

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1Jo 4:10)

For example, the love of God includes a consideration of God’s goodness and mercy, the remembrance of bodily and spiritual benefits, a consideration of the promises of the life to come, obedience due to God, etc. We should love God: (a) Because He is the greatest good. (b) Because He is the perfect [αὐτoτελές] good, the greatest beauty, the greatest treasure, the greatest wisdom. (c) Because He first loved us. (d) Because we become joined together with God through love. (e) Because the most direct road to a salutary and practical knowledge of God is love for Him. (f ) Because God alone can fulfill the desire of the soul. (g) Because God, loving and being loved, gives people blessedness. (h) Because God avows Himself to be our Bridegroom, etc.

Johann Gerhard, On the Law

Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Sunday

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.  (1 Thess 3:11-13)

This is a proof of excessive love, that he not only prays for them by himself, but even in his epistles inserts his prayer.  This argues a fervent soul, and one truly not to be restrained.  This is a proof of the prayers made there also, and at the same time also an excuse, as showing that it was not voluntarily, nor from lack of effort, that they did not go to them.  As if he had said, “May God Himself cut short the testings that everywhere distract us, so that we may come directly to you.”  Do you see the unrestrainable madness of love that is shown by his words?  “Make you to increase and abound,” instead of cause you to grow.  As if one should say, that with a kind of superabundance he desires to be loved by them.  “Even as we do also toward you,” he says.  Our part is already done, we pray that yours may be done.  Do you see how he wishes love to be extended, not only toward one another, but everywhere?  For this truly is the nature of godly love, that it embraces all.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Thessalonians

Love As I Have Loved You

Today, I learned for the first time why the day before Good Friday is called “Maundy Thursday.”  The term comes from the Latin Dies Mandati or Day of Commandment, referring to the new commandment given by Christ in the Upper Room

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  (John 13:34)

and then later

Do this in remembrance of me.  (Luke 22:19)

In giving the first command, our Lord Jesus wanted to elaborate on a love the disciples had scene and experienced over the past years, but the depths of which they had not possibly fathomed.  Even the eleven (Judas had left) do not understand fully what Jesus’ love entails—not now anyway.  That love will be manifest by the one with whom they are eating. Jesus will give himself over to his enemies, then endure injustice and an ignoble death.  That is the magnitude of his love.  And we are to love in that way?  Not by our own reason or strength, we cannot.  It is only be God’s empowerment through the Holy Spirit that we can conceive of such love, much less demonstrate it.

But that leads us to the second.  We take the bread and wine.  We remember

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

Jesus has accomplished all that was necessary to cover sin and for love to flow from the Father through us.  We have the promise that God’s love will be perfected in us as he abides in us (1 Jo 4:12).  Our love may be imperfect or halting now, and even require confession when we sin against one another, but it has a divine source and a divine purpose.

We love as Christ loved us, through the enabling of the Holy Spirit, so that those to whom it is expressed might know the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Consider the Steadfast Love of the Lord

Ever notice how Christians tend to emphasize the wrong things and then let it permeate into its subculture?  I was reminded of this while reading Psalm 107.  Verses 2-3 say this:

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
        whom he has redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands,
        from the east and from the west,
        from the north and from the south.

The first stanza is a popular line, but what does it mean?  The redeemed are to say something, but what about?  If you look at 20th-century music lyrics, the answer is that the redeemed are to proclaim that they are redeemed.  Here are two examples:

Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So	Let The Redeemed
W. C. Martin & John H. Sarchet (1914)	Ward Ellis (1978)
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, All my sins are washed away, And my night is turned to day; Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.	Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I’m redeemed.  I’m redeemed. Praise the Lord!

Preachers picked up on this theme and taught it to eager listeners as a slogan to excite evangelism: let people know that Christ has redeemed you and changed your life.  While this is certainly valid, the problem with this popular use is that the psalm has a different emphasis.  The theme of Psalm 107 is found in the first verse:

Oh give thanks the Lord, for he is good,
        for his steadfast love endures forever!

This is the message the redeemed are to proclaim—the Lord’s steadfast love.  The psalmist develops four scenarios in which the Lord provided provided a solution:

Scenario	Solution
Lost in desert places, hungering and thirsting Imprisoned as a consequence of rebelling against God’s commands Suffering because of foolish iniquities Great natural calamity while conducting business	Lost received a path     Prisoners received freedom, light, and life     Foolish received healing and deliverance     Merchants received peace

Each group, being in great distress, cried to the only One able to meet their need.  This the Lord did faithfully and graciously, demonstrating this love for which all are encouraged to give thanks.  And it is not as if these solutions are supplied through physical means.  Each manifested solution is delivered through God’s word, as explicitly stated in verse 20 and are expected according to promise in Psalm 119:

        Psalm 119:35 – Path
        Psalm 119:105 – Lamp and light
        Psalm 119:28, 95 – Healing and Deliverance
        Psalm 119:165 – Peace

The psalmist summarizes God’s power and ability to move heaven and earth in his people’s favor in blessing the land for abundance (Psa 107:33-38), then in his righteous acts to work for good what sinful man had perpetrated against one another (Psa 107:39-42).  He then ends with a call to carefully consider what the Almighty does and why.

Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things;
        let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord.  (Psa 107:43)

Only through the working of the word, whether inscrupturated or incarnated, can any of this come to pass.  The promise to which the psalm pointed is now found in Jesus Christ.  He has accomplished all that was required to enlighten, heal, deliver, and give a path with ultimate peace.  Jesus is the ultimate demonstration of Him who is the embodiment of love.

What Is Your Church Known For?

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.  (2 Thess 1:3)

Again [Paul] presents thanksgiving as commendation, and on the one hand he expresses admiration for their faith in God, while on the other he expresses admiration for their love for the neighbor.  On both scores he testifies to their perfect virtue.  The Lord said, remember, that in two commandments the whole Law and the Prophets is summed up.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Second Letter to the Thessalonians"

Harsh Criticism Is Not Hardheartedness—Just the Opposite

Jeremiah 8:18-22
My joy is gone; grief is upon me;
    my heart is sick within me.
Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
    from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
    Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
    and with their foreign idols?”
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
    and we are not saved.”
For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
    I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
Is there no balm in Gilead?
    Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
    not been restored?

As much as I critique and call into account where the church comes short, there is another part of me that wants to weep.  Christians are led astray and then propagate sin and error by their own hand assuming all is externally well.  Through poor instruction by a trusted person and solidified by a conflation of Bible texts, error spreads.  Sin, once realized to have put Jesus on the cross, receives some innocuous dabbling because “it’s not hurting anyone else” or “_____ are doing it” (you fill in the blank) that leads to rationalizing of more sin.

Even worse is that we who engage in this activity actually understand there is something wrong.  The Holy Spirit will use the Word of God that we know, hear, or read to prompt us that something needs a course correction.  And then we apply our own medicine on the wound.  We try harder and invest in “cures” that can leave us emotionally or physically spent.  The problem becomes worse when it is not addressed as spiritual in nature.

Those seeking to assist have a difficult task before them.  They recognize the spiritual nature of the problem and offer spiritual solutions but are often considered to be “holier than thou” or sinners casting the first stone.  It is true that spiritual men and women are still waging war with the law of sin still in their members (Rom 7:22-23), but their hearts grieve over what sin and error do to the church.  Exposure of wrong is not meted out in pretense or feigned authority, but through a careful investigation of scripture and understanding that all I am or have comes from the Father.

Some say we should be more like Jesus in how we deal with people.  Based on my Bible reading, I am comfortable stating that the Lord Jesus is the harshest critic that ever walked the earth.  In Matthew 23, he rails against the scribes and Pharisees with seven pronouncements of woe for their reprehensible behavior.  Then as soon as he completed them he turns to the city and lays his heart bare:

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!  (Matt 23:37)

He still cared.  And to what extent?

[Jesus] directs His speech to the city, in this way too being mindful to correct His hearers, and says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!”  What does the repetition mean?  This is the way of One pitying her, and bemoaning her, and greatly loving her.  For like a beloved woman, herself indeed always loved but who had despised Him who loved her, and therefore on the point of being punished, He pleads, being now about to inflict the punishment.  This He does in the prophets also, using these words, “I said, ‘Turn to me,’ and she returned not.”

Then having called her, He tells also her blood-stained deeds, “You who kills the prophets and stones them those who are sent to you, how often would I have gathered your children together, and you would not.”  In this way He is also explaining His own dealings with her: Not even with these things have you turned me aside, nor withdrawn me from my great affection toward you, but it was my desire even so, not once or twice, but often to draw you unto me.  “For how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her brood, and you would not.”  And this He says to show that they were ever scattering themselves by their sins.  And His affection He indicates by the similitude; for indeed the hen is warm in its love towards its brood.  And everywhere in the prophets is this same image of the wings, and in the song of Moses and in the Psalms, indicating His great protection and care.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew

Abound in Love to Be Established in Holiness

Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.  (1 Thess 3:11-13)

The divine apostle called the practice of love the fulfillment of every law, so he prays they increase in number and abound in love—that is, acquire it in its perfection so that nothing may be lacking to it—and that they practice it not only with one another but with all their fellow believers, wherever they be.  “This is the way, after all,” he is saying, “that we feel about you, though far away, wanting to strengthen your hearts so that you may even now be seen by the God of all to be free of blame, and with all the saints you may go to meet Christ the Lord.”

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The First Letter to the Thessalonians"

Respect Your Leaders in the Faith

We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.  Be at peace among yourselves. (1 Thess 5:12-13)

See how well he is aware that unpleasant feelings arise?  He does not merely say "love," but "very highly," as children love their fathers.  For through them you were begotten by that eternal generation.  Through them you have obtained the kingdom.  Through their hands all things are done, through them the gates of heaven are opened to you.  Let no one raise divisions, let no one be contentious.  He who loves Christ, whatever the Priest may be, will love him, because through him he has obtained the awesome mysteries.  Tell me, if wishing to see a palace resplendent with much gold, and radiant with the brightness of precious stones, you could find him who had the key, and he being called upon immediately opened it, and admitted you, would you not prefer him above all men?  Would you not love him as dearly as your eyes?  Would you not kiss him?  This man has opened heaven to you, and you do not kiss him, nor pay him honor.  If you have a wife, do you not love him above all, who procured her for you?  So if you love Christ, if you love the kingdom of heaven, acknowledge through whom you obtained it.  On this account he says, for their work’s sake, be at peace with them.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Thessalonians, 11

We Have Hope Because God So Greatly Loved

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ  (1 Thess 5:9)

Thus God has not inclined to this, that He might destroy us, but that He might save us.  And how is it manifest that this is His will?  He has given His own Son for us.  So does He desire that we should be saved, that He has given His Son, and not merely given, but given Him to death.  From these considerations hope is produced.  For do not despair of yourself, O man, in going to God, who has not spared even His Son for you.  Faint not at present evils.  He who gave His Only-Begotten, that He might save you and deliver you from hell, what will He spare henceforth for your salvation?  So that you ought to hope for all things kind.  For neither should we fear, if we were going to a judge who was about to judge us, and who had shown so much love for us, as to have sacrificed his son.  Let us hope therefore for kind and great things, for we have received the principal thing.  Let us believe, for we have seen an example.  Let us love, for it is the extreme of madness for one not to love who has been so treated.

John Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Thessalonians 9

God's Love Evokes Repentance

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
(Isaiah 55:6-7)

What meaning for us have those themes of the Lord’s parables?  Is not the fact that a woman has lost a drachma, and seeks it and finds it, and invites her female friends to share her joy, an example of a restored sinner?*  There strays one little ewe of the shepherd’s, but the flock was not more dear than the one.  That one is earnestly sought; the one is longed for instead of all, and at length she is found and carried back on the shoulders of the shepherd himself.  For much had she suffered in straying.†  That most gentle father, likewise, I will not pass over in silence, who calls his prodigal son home, and willingly receives him repentant after his destitute state; then slays his best fatted calf, and celebrates his joy with a banquet.‡  Why not?  He had found the son whom he had lost; he had felt him to be all the dearer whom he had gained back.

Who is that father to be understood by us to be?  God, surely: no one is so truly a Father.  No one so rich in paternal love.  He, then, will receive you, his own son, back, even if you have squandered what you had received from Him, even if you return naked—just because you have returned.  He will rejoice more over your return than over the self-control of the other; but only if you heartily repent—if you compare your own hunger with the plenty of your Father’s servants, if you leave behind you the swine, that unclean herd—if you again seek your Father, offended though he be, saying, "I have sinned, nor am worthy any longer to be called yours."  Confession of sins lightens, as much as concealment aggravates them, for confession is counseled by satisfaction, concealment by impenitence.

Tertullian, On Repentance 8

*  Luke 15:8-10
†  Luke 15:3-7
‡  Luke 15:11-32

O Love of God, How Rich and Pure!

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.  (1 John 3:16)

For what more should I say?  Behold the mysteries of love.  And then you shall look into the bosom of the Father, whom God the only-begotten Son alone has declared.  And God Himself is love; and out of love to us became feminine.  In His ineffable essence He is Father; in His compassion to us He became Mother.  The Father by loving became feminine: and the great proof of this is He whom He begot of Himself; and the fruit brought forth by love is love.

For this also He came down.  For this He clothed Himself with man.  For this He voluntarily subjected Himself to the experiences of men, that by bringing Himself to the measure of our weakness whom He loved, He might correspondingly bring us to the measure of His own strength.  And about to be offered up and giving Himself a ransom, He left for us a new Covenant-testament: My love I give unto you.  And what and how great is it?  For each of us He gave His life,—the equivalent for all.  This He demands from us in return for one another.

Cyril of Alexandria, Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved? 37

Loving God and Neighbor

Sorry for my absence.  What a busy week for my job!

Something struck me as Aaron was preaching this past Sunday on Galatians 5:13-18—the section "through love serve one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

The first thing I notice is that Paul says the the law is fulfilled in the one word or command.  This is puzzling because Jesus explicitly stated that the law is summed up in two commands:

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.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."  (Matt 22:37-40)

Some might think that there is a disconnect between Jesus and Paul in their understanding of the Law, but if we look at the original Mosaic context, this disappears.  First, as pertains to God:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.  You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.  (Deut 6:4-9)

Moses has just recounted the Ten Commandments and wants to drive home the main point: YHWH is the only true God, so love to him is demonstrated by learning and understanding his righteous demands, then teaching them to others.

Then there is the command concerning neighbors:

You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.  You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.  (Lev 19:17-18)

God has been giving instruction on how to treat other people: treat them like you would treat yourself in the same circumstance.

The conclusion I get from these passages on God and men are driving at the same thing: give honor and respect as accords with the recipient.  In the end, what Jesus and Paul said in the New Testament were in agreement as to where these commands applied.  Loving God or neighbor does not entail some mystical, esoteric spirituality but are deserving of their due based on who they are; and it is incumbent on you to bestow what is appropriate, when appropriate.

We both know that neither of us is there yet.  We do not keep these consistently, but that does not weaken the obligation.  What improvement that comes in this life does so only as the Holy Spirit works through us using the word of God, or using Paul's words: "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." (Gal 5:16)

Love and Natural Law

I was struck by a reposting of this image.

From Assumption Church, Windsor, Ontario via Pastoral Meanderings

Lest you jump to conclusions about my position, let me state some things:

• First, these do interrupt the natural workings of what God has created.  That is undeniable.
• Second, I do not oppose some family planning.
• Third, these points are the foundation of what my generation called "free love" and is now called "hooking up."  Life and love are cheap, intended for personal gratification without thought to consequences, and any consequence can be altered in an effort to remove responsibility and guilt.

Made Alive With Christ

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

But though our condition was so bad, the Lord God in the depths of his goodness made us sharers in the immortal life of our Lord—the meaning of made us alive together with Christ.  Since he is risen, we also hope to rise, as through him our condition has been set to rights.  Then he brings out more clearly the greatness of the gift: you were called not on account of the excellence of your life but on account of the love of the one who saved you.

Since he is risen, we rise in hope, and since he is seated with the Father, we also participate in the honor; it is our head that is seated with him, our first-fruits who reigns with him, since He is clothed in our nature.  Here and now the greatness of the good things hoped for, while completely hidden from the nonbelievers, the faithful at any rate gaze upon as in a mirror and in shadow, walking through faith and not in appearance.  But then they will see face to face; then both faithful and nonbelievers will see the nature taken from us adored by all creation, and the saints reigning with him.  "If we died, we shall also live with Him," Scripture says, remember, "if we endure, we shall also reign with Him."

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Ephesians" on Ephesians 2:4-7

A Time to Love, and a Time to Hate

When learning that [God's] nature is lovable, we tenderly embrace it and remain firm in our judgment about that which is beautiful and the consuming love directed to persons whom the great David admonished, "Oh sons of men, how long will your hearts be heavy?  Will you love vanity and seek falsehood" [Ps 4:2]?  We must love one thing alone, that which the law of the Decalogue speaks, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, and mind" [Dt 6:5].  There is one object deserving of our hatred, the inventor of evil, the enemy our lives of whom the Law says, "You shall hate your enemy."  The love of God strengthens the person who loves, whereas a disposition towards evil brings destruction upon anyone who loves it.  Thus prophecy says "I will love you, Lord, my strength.  The Lord is my firm support, my refuge and my deliverer" [Ps 18:1-2].  On the other hand we read "He who loves iniquity hates his own soul.  [God] shall rain down snares upon sinners" [Ps 11:5-6].  Therefore the time to love God is one's whole life, and the time to be alienated from evil is also one's entire life.  Even a person who distances himself from loving God ever so slightly does not resemble him because he is separated from love.  The person outside God is necessarily outside the light because God is light [1 Jn 1.5]; he is not in the light, incorruptibility, and every good thought and deed belonging to God because the person not sharing these attributes partakes of their opposites and enters darkness, corruption, utter ruin, and death.

 Gregory of Nyssa, Eighth Homily on Ecclesiastes

What Wondrous Love Is This!

Yes, he really loved in this way.  He died for me.  He died for you.

Nothing Separates Believers from the Love of God

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Having weighed the whole creation against the love of God, and added such as are visible and such as are perceptible only by the mind—angels and powers and dominions—and to the present, hoped for, blessings (as well as threatened punishments also; for by depth, as I apprehend, he signals hell, and by height the kingdom of heaven) and moreover everlasting life and eternal death; and seeing that even then this scale is lightest in the reckoning, he seeks for something else to be cast in.  And finding nothing, he frames into his account all creation in great variety and even then does not find all these together capable to be weighed against the love of God.  For it is fitting, he says, not to love Him on account of His promises of blessings, but to desire them for His sake.  For neither if a man be sincerely well-disposed towards one who is rich, does he love him for the abundance of his wealth; but from his very affection towards him, loves also the possessions belonging to him.  And in like manner the holy apostle declares, I would not choose to inherit the kingdom of heaven, and all visible and invisible creation, and as many such again twice or thrice multiplied, apart from the love of God.  But if any person was to lay before me present and future distresses, present and eternal death, and the most protracted punishment in hell, together with the love of Him, with readiness and welcome would I choose these in preference to the former splendid and glorious and unspeakable objects devoid of love for Him.  Therefore let us both pray and strive that which we also may possess, so that following in the footsteps of the apostles, we may be made sharers thereby in the footsteps of the apostles through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the thrice-holy Spirit, belong glory and majesty, now and ever, unto endless ages.  Amen.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 8:38-39

Listen in Order to Love

Dr. John Kleinig has a 14-week course on Christian Spirituality freely available here.  In lecture 7a, while teaching on Deuteronomy 6:4-9, he refers to the first word (shema; hear, listen) as the most important noting it is an imperative verb.  This is followed by the waw-consecutive perfect "you shall love the Lord … "  He mentions that in these cases the waw-consecutive perfect can be imperatives or commands, so that the translation is as found in most English translations hear … love, but the more common force of the grammar indicates purpose, result, or consequence resulting in the translation hear … in order that you may love.  This puts an entirely different light on the passage.

Previously, believers looked at this passage as needing to work with the greatest fervency that can be mustered knowing that it will never be enough because we certainly fail because of the old man still working in us.  This new way of viewing the passage frees us because the emphasis for empowerment is God.  We are on a continuously learning path of life if we remain close to his word and receive from him.  Ours then is to accept what is freely given, walk in it, and pass it along to another so they might do the same.  The love, then, becomes the natural outgrowth of this process causing the fervency and desire to increase.  It is not manufactured by artificial or contrived stimulation but results from a life of obedience in the Lord.

Jesus taught this was the greatest commandment, but the second like it also mentions love—this time to our neighbor.  Since he put these together, we can deduce that the same thought is in view: if we listen to the voice of God through hearing and reading his word, it results in our love for those around us.  The Sanhedrin's problem was that the members had mostly closed their ears and minds to what God was telling his people through this special revelation.

Later in the Upper Room, Jesus would give his disciples a new commandment:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.  (John 13:34-35)

Seen in the light of what we have reviewed, Jesus is not so much heaping on the demand for greater exertion or deliberation in the command to love but rather adding himself as the supreme example to follow—what I have done and will do, you do also—then reinforced what he said earlier by explicitly teaching:

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.  These things I command you, so that you will love one another.  (John 15:12-17)

And there at the end Jesus comes full circle with a repetition of what was given through Moses to Israel: listen so that you will love.

A common plight in liberal churches is performing acts of "love" in order to gain merit in God's sight and somehow outweigh the lifetime of bad.  Sadly, a great preponderance of evangelical Christians do the very same.  Believing in Christ as their ticket to heaven, they try to gain a special sanctification status or build their heavenly treasure trove to overflowing, when in reality none of it is of ourselves.  All we have materially and spiritually is from the Father who blesses us for Christ's sake.  We live out what has been richly bestowed in the Beloved.

How Great God's Love for Us!

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.  For we reflect, that when we were yet transgressors, and suffering under the infection of impiety, the Lord Christ endured that death, which was inflicted on our behalf; and hence we learn the depth of His lovingkindness, because for a just man it might be that some might face death, but He, through the excess of His love, welcomed the death which was in behalf of sinners.

And he goes on to say, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  God then makes manifest the greatness of His love toward us, in the death of Christ happened not for such as had been just, but for such as were yet transgressors.  For now we have been justified by faith in Him, but, when He undertook that death for us, we were still subject to every kind of sin.  The words, at the right time, mean at the fit time, in due time, and this he also says in his epistle to the Galatians, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons."

Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.  Having entered that accursed death for the ungodly and transgressors, it is evident that He will free from the future punishment those that believe in Him.

Theodoret of Cyrus, "The Letter to the Romans" on Romans 5:7-9