Tuesday: John and the Law
John is second to Paul in the number of books contributed to the New Testament. This is the same John who wrote the Gospel, three letters, and the book of Revelation. Like Peter, he was among the first disciples Jesus chose, and he also had a special relationship with Jesus. Because of his closeness to Jesus, he is often referred to as John the Beloved. Judging from the ending of his Gospel (John 21:25), John knew a lot of personal information about Jesus. Surely one who was as close to Jesus as John would have known if Jesus had set aside God’s law.
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Read John 15:1-11 and 1 John 2:3-6. What do these verses together tell us about how we should relate to God’s commands?
Toward the end of His earthly life, Jesus could testify to His disciples that He had been faithful to His Father’s commandments, and, as a result, had remained in His Father’s love (John 15:10). Jesus did not see the commandments as negative obstacles to be dismissed or discarded; rather, He saw them as guidelines for a loving relationship with Him and with other people. When John, the beloved disciple, reminds Christians of their obligation to God, he uses the same language of love and unity that Jesus does in the Gospel. In fact, John understood that love has always been the essence of the law (for example, 2 John 6). A person cannot claim to be keeping the law if he or she is not involved in loving relationships with God and other people.
The law of God requires that we love our fellow men as we love ourselves. Then every power and action of the mind must be put forth to that end-to do the greatest amount of good. . . . How pleasing to the Giver for man to hold the royal gifts of the soul so that they shall tell with power upon others! They are the connecting link between God and man, and reveal the Spirit of Christ and the attributes of heaven. The power of holiness, seen but not boasted of, speaks more eloquently than the most able sermons. It speaks of God, and opens to men their duty more powerfully than mere words can do.-Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 20, p. 138.
What is your own experience with the link between law and love? That is, on a personal practical level, how is love expressed by obedience to God’s law?
For sure, whether you enter in water, you climb a mountain, for you to survive, you must follow simple rules/laws pertaining to this situation. God’s commandments/laws are for our good. It’s so unfortunate that the devil has culminated a high level of hate to God’s righteousness in man’s nature to an extent that man has become rebellious to the truth and receptive to the devil’s deception.
Truth is absolute. if some people claim that other nine laws are binding whereas the 4th commandment is not, then that is absolutely wrong.
May God help us discern what is true and give us the strength and urge to hate evil in Jesus’ name.
I would like to ask a question. 1. Does love mean different things according to different culture? what some culture calls love, others call something else while dealing with the same situation. Or sometimes we mix up the meaning of love with the meaning of compassion.
2. I know the meaning of lust, infatuation, and like, but is there something that I cannot grasp my mind on that has a name similar to love but is not love?
Remember we are talking about today’s lesson “loving God and his law, and loving humans as ourselves”. No way in the bible says we must love anythings else whether in heaven, earth or sea like how we should love human being, not even our animate or inanimate things.
In the context of today’s lesson, I see two inseparable themes exhausted by john,that is love and law. The two are intertwined and majoring on one alone may breed a half-baked Christian. Now do we say the truth is relative?