Love, Not Law

Verses

God is love. All that know God love their Lord above all things, and their fellow man as themselves. God’s Kingdom is a spiritual Kingdom which is in Heaven above, yet dwells within believers’ hearts. This great Kingdom is ruled by love. Love is spiritual, it cannot be measured in physical standards. It is an emotion, an intense feeling, deep in one’s heart. Faith in God is also an indefinable emotion that leads us to the love of our God. Only those with a faith that creates total love to our Lord can please Him with anything they do. It is impossible for a sinner to please God no matter what great work they do, how much they give, any ceremony they perform or by any life style they live. And only God is able to judge the love in one’s heart.

Love is why our Heavenly Father created us, love is why Jesus came down to die as atonement for our sins, love is why the Holy Spirit gives us the faith that enables our hearts to love our Lord above all else, our neighbor as ourselves. Not a mere affection, but a dominating love that produces works that your Heavenly Father destined for you to do before you were created. And when we have this saving love in our hearts we will follow our Master’s commands, we will do what our Lord has asked us to do, we will live as our Savior would have us live.

On the other end of the spectrum there is only one thing that can condemn us, there is only one unforgivable sin, and that is rejecting the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit alone enables us to meet our Heavenly Father, to love our Savior. All have a choice to make. The first choice is to allow the Holy Spirit into our hearts, allow Him to guide us to the knowledge, faith and love of our Lord. Allow the Comforter to lead us to the saving grace of Jesus. The second choice is to use our own human wisdom to find God. A wisdom so infinitesimally small it will never be able to find God, and so blown out of proportion it will be unable to submit to Him. By using our own wisdom we reject the need for the Holy Spirit, we will never be able to accept Jesus into our hearts.

The greatest command is to love the Lord your God above all things and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. The ways our love should be given to our Lord and neighbors are too diverse, too numerous, to be completely put in words. Our Lord’s two greatest commands are spiritual, a desire within one’s heart to obey, not physical requirements using human reason to interrupt what is needed to fulfill the law. These two commands have always been the greatest and always will be the most important. In Luke 10:25-28 and Matt 22:34-40, the expert in the law knew and agreed with Jesus on the greatest and second greatest commands. The first command to love your God above all else was used as a confession of faith by the Jewish people. It was known as the Shema, repeated daily, and at the beginning of every synagogue service. The second command to love your neighbor was also given to the people by Moses. The Ten Commandments as well as the rest of our Lord’s laws and commands are secondary, they all fall under these two great commands, are but a portion of them. These secondary laws do not save us, they merely show us our human failures in our love for our Lord, in our love for others. The battle is not for us humanly to keep all of the laws, for our sinful nature will never allow us to live a perfect life, we will always sin. The battle is in our hearts, to have the faith and love to want to do the things our Lord would have us do. This love makes us truly sorry when we sin, makes us sincerely want to repent, enables us to believe in the grace of Jesus Christ as atonement for our sins.

When we accept Christ we become spiritually one with our Savior and He becomes spiritually one with us. All believers become part of the body of Christ, members in the one true spiritual Church of Jesus Christ. All in this church are holy, for our sins have been forgiven by Jesus. The other half of the equation is our God and His Kingdom dwell within us. In the New Covenant our bodies are the Temple of the Lord. No other physical buildings or adornments are needed. The Holy Spirit opens the temple doors when He comes into our hearts, opening our eyes to our Lord. The Holy Spirit allows Jesus and our Heavenly Father to live in our hearts, to search them. Ceremonial laws were a means God provided in the Old Covenant to remind people of their sins, lead them to the promised Messiah, and give them substitution atonement until Christ would come. But faith has always forgiven man’s sins, for Abraham received righteousness by faith alone, before he performed the ceremonial laws required for forgiveness. The Lord looked into Abraham’s heart and saw a faith that would willingly follow the Lord’s commands, a faith that would willingly do what would be required as atonement for his sins. Through faith alone Abraham’s sins were forgiven immediately, before he asked, before he did the ceremonial laws that were required for atonement of his sins. Later Abraham’s great faith was shown through his life. In the New Covenant we live in the grace of Jesus Christ, the new way of the Spirit, not of ceremonial law. Believers are greater than all in the Old Covenant, even the greatest prophet John the Baptizer. For all had to wait for Christ to die before they could have their sins washed away, could go to Heaven. We can go directly to Christ and by His grace spiritually come into our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom. There is nothing we have to do for atonement of our sins for Christ’s grace is a free gift of atonement that washes away our sins. And believer’s sins are forgiven immediately, before we even ask, by a faith, a love that produces fruit. For the Holy Spirit intercedes for all in whose heart He dwells, praying for us, and sanctifying us in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus intercedes for those who love Him, who will sincerely repentant of their sins. Our Heavenly Father converses with the Spirit, forgives the sins of those who love Him, remembering them no more, allowing our great God to remain in our hearts. All who have the Lord in their hearts are sinless, are holy, are dearly loved by our Heavenly Father. Only the unrighteous have to fear Judgment Day, for they will be judged on all of the sins they have ever committed. Those who have been made righteous through Christ’s atoning grace have no sins to be judged on, for they have all been forgotten, we have no judgment to face. We will be tested and rewarded for the work we have done out of love to our Lord, the love and help we have given others. Some will be given many blessings to enjoy throughout eternity, others will have no blessings to receive. And then all those who love the Lord will be given their eternal home in Heaven above.

1 Corinthians 13 ASV Bible

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

3 And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;

6 rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;

7 beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

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