MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/23/2026
9:20 AM
My
Worship Time
Focus: The Principle of Kingdom Love”
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Luke
6:31
Message of the verse: “Treat others the same way you want them
to treat you.”
The first thing that I want to say is that I had
planned to do this section in last night’s SD, but my family came over to rearrange
our family room, which is where my wife has been sleeping because of her
cancer, in order to put a bed in this room, and so it was pretty much a late
night for us, and very tiring for all of us.
John MacArthur writes that “visions
of this, the so-called Golden Rule, existed in the rabbinic writings, Greek
philosophy, and in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Those for-mutations, however, cast the rule in a negative sense; they
advocate not doing to others what you would not want them to do to you. The Greek philosopher Isocrates wrote, ‘Do
not do to others that which angers you when they do it to you’ (Nicocles,
3.60). In his Analects, Confucius counseled, ‘Never impose on others
what you would not choose for yourself’ (XV.24). The apocryphal book of Tobit commands, ‘Do
that to no man which thou hatest’ (4:15).
The famous Jewish rabbi Hillel summed up the Torah in the statement, ‘What
is hateful to you, do not to your neighbor’ (Talmud; Shabbat 31:a).
“There is a subtle but significant
difference in the way the Lord phrased this principle. The negative versions of the Golden Rule are
the epitome of human ethics. Yet they
are little more than self-serving expressions of self-love, concerned primarily
with obtaining good treatment for oneself in return. Jesus, however, calls for selfless love, love that focuses solely on
the well-being of its object. The love
He commands seeks to treat others the way it would want to be treated by them—even
if they do not love that way in return.
That is how God loves, and that supernatural love is impossible on the
human level. Only Christians are capable
of it, ‘because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through
the Holy Spirit who was given to us’ (Rom. 5:5).”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today:
I totally agree with MacArthur when he says that humanly speaking we cannot
love others this way. However through
the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us we can. The greatest example of this comes from the
Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth to become a man and then take our place on
the cross as He became sin for us so that we can receive His
righteousness. There is no greater love
than what He did for us on the cross.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: Through the work of the Holy Spirit
I desire to love my wife unconditionally as I care for her through these very
difficult days she is suffering with cancer that is ravaging her body at this
time. Cancer is a result of the fall
that is seen in the third chapter of Genesis, and it is a terrible disease that
I truly hate, but trust the Lord to use this for His glory and our good.
7/23/2026
10:04 AM
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