The Pharisees lived by law. Jesus lived by love. The law of God - ‘holy
and just and good’ (Romans 7:12) - had been distorted by the religious
hypocrites. They were saying, ‘love your neighbour and hate your enemy’
(Matthew 5:43). ‘Love your neighbour’ is found in Leviticus 19:18. ‘Hate
your enemy’ is not found in the Old Testament. For the Jews,
‘neighbour’ meant their own kind. They wrongly concluded that Gentiles
were to be hated. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear
that we are to love our enemies as well as our friends (Luke 10:25-37).
Jesus’ disagreement is not with the law of God. It is with man’s misuse
of it. Jesus’ teaching is simple - Love is not to be limited. It is
demanding - love is all-embracing. We dare not bring love within our
reach. We always fall short. We can only come to Christ. Confessing our
lack of love and trusting in His perfect love, we learn to love.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Featured post
I’d Rather Have Jesus Than Silver Or Gold.
Daniel 5:1-31 We are not to ‘praise the gods of gold and silver...’(4). Material possessions must never take the place of God. Seeki...
-
God's Word is "a lamp to our feet and a light to our path." He has "wondrous things" to teach us as we pray "...
-
For forty years, Rev George Philip (11th November 1925-16th February 2019) taught God's Word, faithfully and fruitfully, at Sandyford...
No comments:
Post a Comment