EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/7/2024 10:33 PM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-2 “Love as an Old Commandment”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1 John 2:7
Message of the
verse: “Beloved,
I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you
have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have
heard.”
Paul who was instructing the Romans on brotherly
love used a quotation from the Decalogue and Leviticus 19:18
Owe nothing
to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has
fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall
not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not
coven,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You
shall love you neighbor as yourself.”
Love does not wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of
the law (Romans 13:8-10).
There is an inseparable
link between obedience and loving God and one’s neighbor; thus Paul declares
that “love is the fulfillment of the law.”
I will conclude this evening’s SD with a rather long
quote from John MacArthur’s commentary.
“The truth that they were to love
one another was something his readers would have had from the beginning. The beginning in view here is not the
creation or God’s giving of the Law of Moses, but the beginning of their
Christian lives (cf. 2:24; 3:11; 2 John 6).
This was taught them from the start, not merely by some recent
innovation from John. The word concerning
love which they heard was the old commandment.
The Old Testament teaching on love, which Jesus had already reiterated
(Matt. 22:34-40; Mark 12:2818-20; Luke 10:29-37; 14:25-35; John 4:21-24;
6:26-58; 8:12, 31-32; 12:23-26; 13:1, 12-17; 15:1-17; 21:15-19; cf. John
7:37-38; 10:11-18; 11:25-26). John’s
teaching was thus part of the ethical instruction throughout all divine
revelation and such as his readers had heard from the beginning of their
Christian lives. Obedience to that
instruction was a test of the reality of their conversion and a central element
in the general submission of all who are in Jesus Christ and willingly bow to
His lordship (Matt. 7:21-23; Luke 6:46; 9:22-26; Acts 4:19-20; 5:29; Rom. 6:17;
1 Peter 1:2, 14; cf. Eccl. 12:13; James 1:25).”
Lord willing we will begin to look
at the other side of this subject “Love as a New Commandment” from 1 John 2:8
in my next SD, Lord willing tomorrow.
10/7/2024 10:50
PM
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