Holiness and love – the two belong together (Leviticus 19:1,18,34). God calls us to live a life of holiness, a life of love. Through His Spirit – the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love – , He enables us to live this life. We need His promises. We need His commands. Take them both together – not one without the other! Promises without commands – We take God for granted, we presume on His blessing. Commands without promises – Our ‘obedience’ becomes a legalistic thing which has nothing to do with the Gospel of grace. We are to ‘be holy… before Him in love‘ (Ephesians 1:4). ‘The holiness without which no one will see the Lord’ (Hebrews 12:14) is to be accompanied by the ‘love’ without which we are ‘nothing’ (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). The Lord has redeemed us: By His grace, we shall ‘be holy… in love’ (Leviticus 19:34,36).
Christ is greater than Paul, Apollos and Cephas (1 Corinthians 3:22-23).
We come to know God when ‘the Spirit’ leads us to ‘Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:10-13; 3:11; John 16:14). We must not attach too much importance to the preachers – ‘What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants …’. When we make too much of the servant, we draw attention away from the Saviour. There is a very important lesson here – ‘Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth’ (1 Corinthians 3:5-7). We are not members of a ‘mutual appreciation society’ – ‘You pat my back, and I’ll pat yours’! We must learn to point to Jesus, saying, ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30). Let ‘Jesus take the highest honour’. Let His Name be ‘the Name high over all’. ‘’Tis all my business… to cry Behold the Lamb!’ (Mission Praise, 378,385) – Let’s say it and mean it!
Law and Love
The
Pharisees lived by law. Jesus lived by love. The law of God - ‘holy and
just and good’ (Romans 7:12) - had been distorted by the religious
hypocrites. They were saying, ‘love your neighbour and hate your
enemy’ (Matthew 5:43). ‘Love your neighbour’ is found in Leviticus 19:18. ‘Hate
your enemy’ is not found in the Old Testament. For the Jews,
‘neighbour’ meant their own kind. They wrongly concluded that Gentiles
were to be hated. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear
that we are to love our enemies as well as our friends (Luke 10:25-37).
Jesus’ disagreement is not with the law of God. It is with man’s misuse
of it. Jesus’ teaching is simple - Love is not to be limited. It is
demanding - love is all-embracing. We dare not bring love within our
reach. We always fall short. We can only come to Christ. Confessing our
lack of love and trusting in His perfect love, we learn to love.
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