What is the Law of Love? Simply stated, it is this: Love God and love your neighbor. Christ informed us that ALL the law hangs on this principle. Paul refers to it as the Law of Christ in his letter to the Galatians. It is the essence of Jesus’ teaching in Mat 22:36-40.
I’ve been learning a lot about the Law of Love, recently, and I’ve been thinking about how it is God’s command and His delight for us to share His blessings. Last week, I heard a minster say that because we are receiving God’s blessings, a river of blessings should be flowing out of us. What a perfect way of describing the Law of Love!
Through Scripture and ministers and conversations with godly friends, the theme of ‘love your neighbor’ has come up time and again, lately. If you are walking with the Lord, I’m sure you know how God, often, teaches in themes. So when I recognize a theme surfacing, I start paying attention because I know I’m about to learn a very special lesson.
Selfishness Is the Opposite of the Law of Love
When I read Jeremiah 22:15-16 a few days ago, it really caught my attention. I’ve been back to look at it several times, knowing that God meant for me to understand something deeper.
“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 22:15-16 NIV)
I was particularly captivated by these details … The king’s father had food and drink and everything was going well for him, but still he cared for the poor and needy. Then the Lord, in making a point to the son, asked him, “Isn’t that what it means to know me?” God was teaching the son about his sin of being self-centered.
Later, while reading in Ezekiel, I came to a verse that gave me the ‘clunk’ you get when a solid truth falls into place like the last piece of a puzzle coming together.
Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. (Ezekiel 16:49-50 NIV)
Arrogant … Overfed … Unconcerned … suddenly, I got it! They ate and drank and lived well and forgot the Law of Love … it’s exactly the same as the sin of the king in the Jeremiah passage. And look at the horrors the sin of selfishness eventually led to in Sodom; it caused them to do detestable things before the Lord!
Pearl of Wisdom: The sin of selfishness has a powerful momentum which carries us far away from the Lord.
Living by the Law of Love is how we abide in Christ, and it is the way to safeguard us from the horrible end of a self-centered life.
[...] because I know I’m about to learn a very special lesson. I’ve written two short articles [ What Is The Law Of Love? and Why Is The Law Of Love So Important? ] about what God has taught me about loving my neighbor so [...]