Prayer-Soldier Newbie
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Posted: Sun Mar 08, 2015 12:57 am Post subject: The Commandments of Love |
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The Commandments of Love
Scripture:
And the Lord spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall not have strange gods before me. You shall not make to yourself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth. You shall not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord your God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me: And showing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.
Remember that you keep holy the sabbath day. Six days shall you labor, and shall do all your works. But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord your God: you shall do no work on it, you nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your beast, nor the stranger that is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
Honor your father and your mother, that you may be long lived upon the land which the Lord your God will give you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet the house of your neighbor:
Neither shall you desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his. (Exodus 20:1-17)
For both the Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:22-25)
And the pasch of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And he found in the temple them that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords, he drove them all out of the temple, the sheep also and the oxen, and the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. And to them that sold doves he said: Take these things hence, and make not the house of my Father a house of traffic. And his disciples remembered, that it was written: The zeal of your house has eaten me up.
The Jews, therefore, answered, and said to him: What sign do you show unto us, seeing you do these things? Jesus answered, and said to them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said: Six and forty years was this temple in building; and will you raise it up in three days?
But he spoke of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered, that he had said this, and they believed the scripture, and the word that Jesus had said.
Now when he was at Jerusalem, at the pasch, upon the festival day, many believed in his name, seeing his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and because he needed not that any should give testimony of man: for he knew what was in man. (John 2:13-25)
Reflection:
The Lord gave His commandments so that the people might live together in peace and love. The commandments are designed so that those who follow them will do what is right and just. The people have argued over time as to how they should be numbered or what they mean. There should be no need for such discussions if the people understood the purpose of what God gave them. Jesus answered the question when He responded to the one who inquired as to which is the greatest commandment. Jesus said: to love God. He also said the second was like it: to love one another. He continued to explain that all the law and prophecy depend upon these commandments. (Matthew 22:36-40)
If we understand, then, it does not matter the number of the commandments or how we parse their meaning, but that we comprehend we are called to fulfill their purpose. We are called to love God and one another. If what we do does not fulfill these, then, we are not fulfilling the purpose for which He created us. If we follow the greatest of commandments, the commandments to love, then, we need not argue the number or meaning of the others.
It is the way of evil to seek to confuse the children of His creation so that they may become blind to Him and to what is right and just. Though they are created in His image with the ability to reason, they are weak to the world and often fall to twisted and confused logic. In their struggles, they argue as to what is right and just. Evil confuses them to turn them from their Creator and to lure them to their destruction. The divisions among them need not be so, for if they trusted only in Him, evil would have no means to confuse and drive divisions.
And so it was that the Word made flesh came down from heaven to teach the people the Word. Because they did not understand, they sought from Him a sign; but if they comprehended the blessings of the Lord, they would have understood that Jesus was the sign, for what He did was the example of love of God and for all the children of His creation. If they understood, they would have no divisions among them, rather they would rejoice in the Word of the Lord, His commandments and the blessings of love it brings to them.
May the peace and blessings of the Lord be with you always,
Prayer Soldier
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