Bible League: Living His Word I am writing to remind you, dear friends, that we should love one another. This is not a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning.Why would the Apostle John feel the need to urge those to whom his letter is addressed to love one another? If you are going to take the time to write a letter to a church, why not focus on issues that are fresh and less obvious? After all, the idea that we should love one another is central to the Christian way of life and it was, no doubt, taught in the churches from the very beginning. Even John himself says the commandment is nothing new to his readers. Apparently the Apostle believed it was something that bears repeating. Precisely because love is so central, it bears repeating. It may not be new, but it is crucial to everything Christianity is all about. Jesus said that the love of God is the first and greatest commandment and He said that the love of neighbor is equally important. Indeed, Jesus said that the "entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments" (Matthew 22:37-39). It follows, therefore, that every other law, commandment, and principle of the Bible is just a specific way of expressing love to God or to people. We should not envy, for example, because to do so is a failure to love someone. We should not kill, obviously, for the same reason. Something similar can be said of every other moral principle of the Bible. Given the central importance of love, it can't be avoided. It's not a new commandment because its very centrality demanded that it be confronted from the beginning. Thus, the Apostles taught it to the churches, Jesus taught it to His disciples, and it was first articulated by Moses in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). Indeed, since the moral principles of the Old Testament are grounded in the very design plan God had for human beings made in His image, love has been central to human life from the very beginning of human life. So we need to be reminded. We need to be reminded of the centrality and importance of love. We need to continuously re-orient and re-focus our lives as lives of love. Today, then, do what John says we should do. Be sure to love one another. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 36, 37 Jeremiah 36 -- Jeremiah's Scroll Read in the Temple, Burned, and Replaced NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 37 -- Jeremiah Warns against Trust in Pharaoh NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Philemon Philemon 1 -- Paul's Thankfulness for Philemon's Faithfulness; Paul's Plea for Onesimus NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.Insight What we put into our minds determines what comes out in our words and actions. Paul tells us to program our minds with thoughts that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. Challenge Do you have problems with impure thoughts and daydreams? Examine what you are putting into your mind through television, books, conversations, movies, and magazines. Replace harmful input with wholesome material. Above all, read God's Word and pray. Ask God to help you focus your mind on what is good and pure. It takes practice, but it can be done. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Acts 9:11 Behold, he prayeth.Prayers are instantly noticed in heaven. The moment Saul began to pray the Lord heard him. Here is comfort for the distressed but praying soul. Oftentimes a poor broken-hearted one bends his knee, but can only utter his wailing in the language of sighs and tears; yet that groan has made all the harps of heaven thrill with music; that tear has been caught by God and treasured in the lachrymatory of heaven. "Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle," implies that they are caught as they flow. The suppliant, whose fears prevent his words, will be well understood by the Most High. He may only look up with misty eye; but "prayer is the falling of a tear." Tears are the diamonds of heaven; sighs are a part of the music of Jehovah's court, and are numbered with "the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high." Think not that your prayer, however weak or trembling, will be unregarded. Jacob's ladder is lofty, but our prayers shall lean upon the Angel of the covenant and so climb its starry rounds. Our God not only hears prayer but also loves to hear it. "He forgetteth not the cry of the humble." True, He regards not high looks and lofty words; He cares not for the pomp and pageantry of kings; He listens not to the swell of martial music; He regards not the triumph and pride of man; but wherever there is a heart big with sorrow, or a lip quivering with agony, or a deep groan, or a penitential sigh, the heart of Jehovah is open; He marks it down in the registry of His memory; He puts our prayers, like rose leaves, between the pages of His book of remembrance, and when the volume is opened at last, there shall be a precious fragrance springing up therefrom. "Faith asks no signal from the skies, To show that prayers accepted rise, Our Priest is in His holy place, And answers from the throne of grace." Daily Light on the Daily Path Hosea 14:9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble in them.1 Peter 2:7,8 This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone," • and, "A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE"; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. Proverbs 10:29 The way of the LORD is a stronghold to the upright, But ruin to the workers of iniquity. Mark 11:15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; Psalm 107:43 Who is wise? Let him give heed to these things, And consider the lovingkindnesses of the LORD. Matthew 6:22 "The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. John 7:17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. Matthew 13:12 "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. John 8:47 "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God." John 5:40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. John 10:27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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