YES, HE is Talking to YOU! (continued)
Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
I listened to a sermon this morning from the internet; it was delivered by a Word of Faith preacher whom I listen to often and have a great deal of respect for. On the whole, his teaching is direct and focused on many of the same things that we are focused on but in individual messages I find myself wondering at times if we are reading the same Bible and listening to the same Master. Over the course of these posts I have let it be known that I disagree with what has become of the church in general with the multiplicity of denominations and teachings and what I find as a great disparity between the intent of Jesus and the interpretations of the many ministers of His Gospel. I have also let it be known that there is a definite need for many of these differing denominations and ways of approach to God because the masses of people are on so many different levels both spiritually and in their ability to understand the precepts of Christ. So, I disagree and at the same time I understand that there is a need. My attitude however does not help me when I hear things that seem to be the total opposite of the reality of Jesus teaching and the whole intent of His coming among us over 2000 years ago.
The part of the overall message that I refer to involved our acceptance, as born again Christians, of the things that other people do; that we should not accept ‘sin’ and should speak plainly the ‘truth’ of what they are doing. The gist here is against homosexuality and other like ‘perversions’ which likely would include all that the preacher does not believe is ‘Christian’ that goes on in the world today. This includes also other religions and even beliefs such as one’s believing in evolution which was a part of his sermon as well. Now on its own this seems rather normal in the type of church this pastor runs as anything that they believe is against the teaching of the Bible is ‘sin’ and should be condemned as such. But, he also seems to be teaching, from a rather intolerant perspective, that Jesus did not teach tolerance saying that many people believe that Jesus did teach tolerance but that He did not. This teaching is part of my objection but not the main part of the message that caused me to write on this today. Our overall theme of Love relates to his statement, which I paraphrase: there is an understanding in some parts of the Christian world that we should love everybody but this ain’t bible; it is not true. He goes on to say that we are not all brothers and sisters and that these ways of believing and thinking can be the death of true Christians.
In these statements is found the exact opposite of what we read and write here in this blog and, as we should see it, the opposite also of the teachings of the Master and of the writers of the epistles. Starting with tolerance let us look at what he is telling his people is not in the teaching of Christ. Tolerance is defined as: 1.a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry. 2.a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one’s own. 3.interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one’s own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint. 4.the act or capacity of enduring; endurance. What here can be truly said to be against the teaching of the New Testament? Especially when we view some of the synonyms for tolerance which are: patience, sufferance, forbearance; liberality, impartiality, open-mindedness. He also seems to have forgotten the high ideals of judge not and condemn not when speaking about tolerance and in their calling his idea of sin as sin, albeit he says to do so politely.
Continuing to this minister’s ideas on Love and his saying that the idea that we should love everybody ‘ain’t bible’. We have just spent many posts establishing just the opposite of this and all based on the words of the Master. Not only is the scriptural based idea of neighbour inclusive of all people but so is the very definition of Love, especially as we have adopted it. His compounding this by saying that we are not all brothers and sisters should be seen in the same light. Perhaps this minister forgets the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus reference to brother as the undefined person who may have a mote in his eye or who we have anything against or with whom we may be angry (Matthew 5-7). This brother should be seen as anyone; anyman. The very meaning of brother in the ‘biblical’ definition of the word from the Greek Lexicon covers all from a blood relative to all men or any fellow or man** while Strong’s defines brother as neighbour***.
Fighting against the type of attitude in the Christian churches is one of the motivations for this blog. In an era where the world has become so small, we need ever more to reach out to our brothers and our sisters around the globe regardless of what they believe. There is no longer room for the self righteousness that has been so long prevalent in much of Christianity. It is hard to understand how anyone can teach that these things, tolerance, Love for all, and the Brotherhood of Man, are against anything but the preachers own dogmatic point of view. Words and sermons like these from this minister in a Christian assembly can only serve to turn off any motion toward the Love that Christ actually taught in His simple statement of “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:31). Remember that Jesus goes on to teach us who our neighbour is in the Parable of the Good Samaritan and we should note again who, in this story, was not the neighbour because they did not see being neighbour as important; the priest and the Levite (Luke 10:30-36).
This has become a long diversion from our topic and our intended essay theme regarding the Love and Brotherhood taught by the Master through His parables but it is important to look around at what is in the world that is contrary to what we read and write. One of us is right and one is wrong and always we should measure what we say against the idea of identifying the wisdom from above as written by James and which bears repeating even though we closed our Quote of the Day with it yesterday: ‘and the wisdom from above, first, indeed, is pure, then peaceable, gentle, easily entreated, full of kindness and good fruits, uncontentious, and unhypocritical” (James 3:17) Young’s Literal Translation. Last on this is that I was prompted to write on this today while researching some additional ideas on Love. I came across this from the words of the Master as a caution to those who are not teaching or not hearing the Truth of what He says: “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:11-13).
Looking deeper into what Jesus says, we should note that the word prophet here can be a bit misleading as it does not only refer to the Isaiahs and the Jeramiahs of the Old Testament, but refers to any who claim that they are divinely inspired or that they hear from God. In some church circles, the one I cite above included, this is a common occurrence, pastors and teachers claiming that what they are teaching or what they are doing comes from the Lord and that they hear that still small voice of divine inspiration. I say this not to disparage any but to show again that what we see and hear in inspiration and revelation is filtered through the everyday conscious personality that is our outward appearance and it is thereby colored and changed by our own belief system and what we have learned. This saying also speaks of iniquity and this is a rather strong word to use as it may appear that we are accusing this minister of this. This word is translated from the Greek word anomia of which the lexicon says: the condition of without law, because ignorant of it, because of violating it; contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness. From this we should take, in this type of instance, the idea of one’s being without the law because of ignorance as we must believe that there is no malice here. Strong’s relates iniquity to unrighteousness and it could be said that self righteousness is, in today’s vernacular, a type of iniquity and is defined as confident of one’s own righteousness, especially when smugly moralistic and intolerant of the opinions and behavior of others*¡*.
In many ways we can all be accused of self righteousness for voicing our beliefs in teaching and writing and so we must be careful that what we say does not come under the defining terms above.
The High Ideal and Virtue found in the Love taught by the Master should be seen as boundless even as our God is boundless. The separation of the human family into segments of believers and non-believers on which we base the Love that the Lord gave to us to give to all is not the teaching of the Christ. God is Love, we are of God and we can say then that we are Love as well; this is a deep truth. Christ brought to the Earth the Love of God and the Wisdom of God and that Christ Within us all has this same Love and Wisdom which is aching to get out through our conscious personalities. Instead of believers and non-believers we should talk of realizers and non-realizers and this based on the fact that we are all in His likeness and image. The Soul which is the Christ Within beats inside each of us awaiting the day when we can consciously turn our attention to Him initiating the New Birth and creating a functioning Son of God on Earth through following in His word and in His Love.
Closing today with our understanding of Love and the question whether this is how we should treat and view all people around the world. In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
Plus the ever important High Ideal as taught by the Christ:
“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19).
There is no room for self-righteousness in the world today. We must teach and encourage others in the way of the words of the Christ and this starting with Love thy neighbour and the Golden Rule.
- ** New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- *** Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- *!* Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc.
