tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68068594985398464732024-02-08T05:31:47.432-08:00Freedom AuthorityAuthority is the freedom to do good.freedomauthorityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17666783539025861896noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806859498539846473.post-64509224394949020892007-04-19T17:17:00.000-07:002007-04-27T09:25:18.084-07:00Love is the Law...<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Brothers and Sisters,<br /><br />Love <i style="">is the</i> Law.<span style=""> </span>Further, this truth is written in all of our hearts to be found by all who seek the truth with integrity and diligence.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Let me first address my brothers and Sisters who are Christian and embrace the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God</span>:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >The Bible says many things that are difficult, but much of its message is clear and easy to understand.<span style=""> </span>And the Bible makes the importance and priority of Love so clear that to call ones self a Christian and to call the Bible Truth, requires one to put Love before </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><st1:stockticker><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ALL</span></st1:stockticker></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" > other things, even the Gospel itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >God, when he was Jesus, said:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><blockquote>Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.</blockquote><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p>On this depends the Bible itself, that we Love God and our neighbors, both at least as well as your self.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p>So the honest Christian may not equivocate, Paul clarifies what love is:</span></p><blockquote style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Love is patient, love is kind {and} is not jealous; love does not brag {and} is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong {suffered,} does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.</span></blockquote> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >I can add nothing to this.<span style=""> </span>It is very clear.<span style=""> </span>Any thing that I do that is contrary to these qualities is not Love.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Paul goes on to reiterate just where love fits in God’s list of priorities:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><blockquote>Love never fails; but if {there are gifts of} prophecy, they will be done away; if {there are} tongues, they will cease; if {there is} knowledge, it will be done away.</blockquote></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Love comes before any other message spoken in the name of God.<span style=""> </span>Love comes before any other truth God gives us.<span style=""> </span>Love comes before anything else we can possibly know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >So to my fellow Christians and believers in the Bible, I say “Look.<span style=""> </span>The message of the Gospel is ‘Love’, not ‘Love but…’<span style=""> </span>Refuse to compromise when it comes to love.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">To my Brothers and Sisters who are not “Christians”</span> and who do not embrace the Bible as the divinely inspired word of God, I have this to share:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >What I say above is the true message of the Bible.<span style=""> </span>It is the message anyone reading the whole Bible, believing it is true and seeking truth with integrity, will find.<span style=""> </span>Any message, claiming to be “Christian”, that is contrary to or diminishes the Law of Love, is counterfeit, born of deceit or self-deceit.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p>God, when he was Jesus, said:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><blockquote>By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.</blockquote><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >While all “Christians” should be my brothers and sisters, my true brothers and sisters are Christ’s disciples.<span style=""> </span>And I know these true brothers and sisters, not by what they say about who Jesus is, but by their love for one another.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:100%;" >While I arrive at the importance of love through the Bible, love is not the property of Christians.<span style=""> </span>Love is the Law.<span style=""> </span>Love is the true nature of man.<o:p></o:p></span> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >Paul writes:<o:p><br /></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><blockquote>For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them</blockquote></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >And:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><blockquote>[…] that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.</blockquote><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" >The Law of God is written on all of our hearts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">So to all my Brothers and Sisters, “Christian” and non-Christian alike</span>, I say seek the truth with diligence and integrity and you will find love, and when you do, join with me as a fellow disciple of Christ and let us show the world the power of the Law; that is the power of Love.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p>freedomauthorityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17666783539025861896noreply@blogger.com3