jn_en_2019_05_13
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- | Monday, May 13, 2019. | + | Monday, May 13, 2019. Many people know that Jesus commands his disciples to love their neighbors |
+ | as themselves. It is recorded in the New Testament, and it is part of this new covenant, rooted | ||
+ | deeply in the cross of Calvary and the forgiveness which is proclaimed with the death of Jesus! | ||
+ | However, the command to love your neighbor as yourself is not new at all. It is, indeed, one of | ||
+ | the old commands, given together with the 10 commandments when Moses brought the people of | ||
+ | Israel out of Egypt. | ||
{{2019: | {{2019: | ||
- | ** ... ** | + | ** An Old Commandment |
+ | Let us have a look into the biblical book Leviticus, the third book of Moses. Here, it is | ||
+ | written: | ||
<color #aa0000> | <color #aa0000> | ||
- | + | 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. | |
- | </ | + | </ |
+ | Let us try to understand the overall framework of the command. Where does it come from, and | ||
+ | why is it so important? | ||
+ | The bible describes God, the creator. He is. He has been ever since, he was before time, he | ||
+ | is above time, and he will be when time has ended. We call it eternity. He is also acting within | ||
+ | time, he is there in the middle of human history, and in the middle of your day. | ||
+ | |||
+ | God is father, son and holy spirit. The biblical books find the one God, the only God, but in | ||
+ | three persons. God in himself is community, he in himself is love. This is, indeed, good news. | ||
+ | Good news in the sense that God is to great, that humans find rescue and a home in him. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The most important point: God created humans to be with them. He created them in his image. | ||
+ | We are made to live with God, to have him as our heavenly father, and to be his children. He | ||
+ | created us with the desire to know a great God, a loving God, the ultimate reference point as | ||
+ | well as living father day by day. | ||
{{ 2019: | {{ 2019: | ||
- | ** ... ** | + | ** With him ... ** |
+ | |||
+ | We are made to love God. We are made to discover his purity and love, to experience it, to | ||
+ | live in intense community with him through the holy spirit. Without this spirit we are empty | ||
+ | and lonely. There is a place in our soul, the most important place, which is made for him | ||
+ | to be God and love and center to us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | When he, the eternal God, is missing in our soul, we start to fill the place with other | ||
+ | things. But these are not made to be there. They are things, not God. We give them a role, | ||
+ | which does not fit and does not work. The bible calls it idol. When ever something in | ||
+ | our life gets to the place which has been created for God, it becomes an idol. This is how | ||
+ | it is. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But God needs to be in this place. He needs to be our God. And the connecting link is love. | ||
+ | Without love, we are robots. Without love, we are not linked to him the way which would be | ||
+ | adequate for him. He is love himself, the origin of all we know and feel and experience. | ||
+ | Only love is the adequate and sustainable link to God. Only love can save us. | ||
+ | When we are connected to the original love, we cannot but live his way. And his way is to | ||
+ | love him, to love ourselves and to love all around us in an intense way. That does not say | ||
+ | we should do all what people tell us to do - do not mix up love with stupitity. Our love | ||
+ | should be real love, and real love will be very careful about how it treats people and | ||
+ | what is does. True love is full of critical interaction, | ||
+ | What can we say? Just discover this love, which comes from the Lord, and is the Lord, today | ||
+ | and tomorrow and for eternity! | ||
(Roland Potthast) | (Roland Potthast) | ||
[[http:// | [[http:// |
jn_en_2019_05_13.1557727412.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/05/13 08:03 by potthast