MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 20, 2022
LOVELESS LAW EQUALS LAWLESS LOVE
Earth is the only inhabited planet in rebellion. In a parable it is symbolized as the “one lost sheep” whom the good shepherd went in search for in the dark and dangerous places at the risk of his life, leaving the ninety nine sheep in the safety of the fold. Matt. 18:12-14; Luke 15: 3-7.
In God’s kingdom in heaven and throughout the endless expanse of the universe,the unfallen worlds (Heb. 1: 1-3) and its sinless inhabitants “live, move, and have their being” in freewill freedom, license-less liberty (the opposite of licentious liberty) liberating love, perfect peace, unalloyed happiness, uninterrupted unity, and flawless harmony—-all adoringly worship in praise and thanksgiving to the one and only God Creator, on the only day He blessed, sanctified and set aside exclusively for this weekly purpose, “in spirit and truth.”
All because all are of “one heart, one mind, and one spirit (or attitude). And all are voluntarily, willingly, and spontaneously “compelled” in their hearts by Christ’s indwelling LOVE and infilling Spirit, to love God first with “all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, and all their strength (or might),” and then like the first, their eternal “neighbors as themselves.” In thought, word, and deed, this indeed is “love divine, love excelling.”
Only Paul among all of Christ’s first disciples and apostles, was granted the exclusive privilege of being “taken up in vision to heaven, verily the third heavens, paradise itself, and heard words that cannot be lawfully spoken on earth (see 2 Cor. 12: 1-10). With this kind of highly advanced experience came corresponding far deeper spiritual insights (and greater responsibilities and accountability, of course).
Thus, on the subjects of love anrd law (and others as well) Paul brought forth profound spiritual insights and deep eternal truths connected with each. On LOVE, called “charity” in the KJV, the apostle elucidates on it in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 like none of the other Bible writers did. Read and contemplate upon it in comparison with David’s Psalms 119, and you will be impressed to see and learn how God’s perfect love and His perfect law intersect and intertwine with each other, forming a perfect tapestry of the spiritual seven colors of the rainbow “surrounding God’s great white throne,” which is also the material foundation of the “robe of righteousness” and “fine, white linen of the saints,” the “wedding garment” that all must have who will sit down with the Bridegroom at the “wedding supper of the Lamb.”
This, and infinitely more, describes the “place” that Christ went “to prepare” for His faithful followers through the ages. John 14: 1-3. Our only fair share of work, as “co-laborers with God,” is to love Jesus by keeping and obeying all His commandments in its most comprehensive spiritual sense by His empowering grace imparted through the Holy Spirit. Only thus can we truthfully and honestly say, “I can [and will] do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Without His law, love becomes lawless; lawlessness, strife, perversion, bloodshed and wretched lives and death reigns. Without His love, His law is made an abomination by apostates who replace and counterfeit it with their own man-made religious laws which they use to enforce worship and exact allegiance and obeisance to these counterfeit laws, denying the individual his sacred God-given right and freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience only.
Until next week’s MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.