Good Morning All,
Many years ago, there was a pop song that
had the chorus line “If you can’t be with the one you love, honey; love the one
you’re with.” This line pretty much sums
up the world’s view of love. This view
is based entirely on the selfish concept of “me, me, only me.” It gives a much-distorted view of love. A common view of love is the one that states,
“I’ll love you as long as you love me and are nice to me and as long as you
make me feel good.” This way of looking
at love also distorted the view of God’s law and covenant.
During the time that Jesus ministered here
on earth, the Pharisees and the Scribes had completely distorted the correct
way to read God’s law that was given to Moses.
The Pharisees made the law very condemning and harsh. They used the law to punish and attack the
people. They used it as a cruel rod of
oppression. They used the law to beat
the people into submission and gave them no comfort, no peace, and no hope.
This was the way religion worked at this
time. It was about rules, really picky
rules, and it was about being judged or judging someone else. This was one of the reasons that Jesus’
message resonated with the common, everyday people at this time and not with
the religious elite. The message of
Jesus offered hope. Instead of condemning,
he offered forgiveness. He told his
disciples that faith, true faith is very different from what the Pharisees
taught. True faith was shown with love. This is what Jesus meant when he called it a
“new commandment;” it was new to the way they were used to. It was new to them but not to Jesus or God.
This doesn’t mean that we forget the
law. The law serves as a guide to our
life. When we approach someone who is in
sin, it is not so much telling them that they are wrong. It is telling them that what they are doing
is hurtful to themselves and hurtful to their relationship with God. When Jesus told the woman who was caught in
adultery to “go and sin no more;” this was as much about the harm she was doing
to herself, her family, and all the others involved. The pain that she felt was pretty much self-inflicted. This is common today.
We are often our own worst enemy. We hold onto hate or grudges; we think that
fulfilling selfish desires makes us happy and it never does. The person who loves money never has enough
and worries about it constantly. The
person who loves himself only thinks of himself and is usually lonely most of
the time. The person who expects others
to make him happy rarely is because our source of happiness is not outside of
us but comes from our inner peace which we have with and from God. Our only source of true joy is love; the kind
of love that is the expression of our faith in Jesus.
Father
of all love, too often we fall short of your glory and on doing so we fail to
love as you love us. Strengthen us with
your grace and move us by your mercy to reach out and to show your love to
those around us. In Jesus’ precious name
we pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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