Fountainhead of All

pastor2022 · Moderator Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 769

Fountainhead of All
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great
commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets."

Matthew 22:37-40

If we love both God and other people as we should, every other duty will flow from our hearts very naturally. "On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets," Jesus said. Paul expressed this truth by saying that "love is the fulfillment of the law" (Romans 13:10). It is not that love is our only obligation, but that we shall be happy to fulfill the other aspects of God's will if we first love Him and then love other people. Love is the fountainhead from which all good obedience flows.

This primary importance of love is often acknowledged, but it is not as often recognized that the love of which Jesus spoke is something we decide as well as something we feel. As M. Scott Peck wrote, "Love is an action, an activity. It is not a feeling." We will not find the whole of God's law being fulfilled in us until we quit waiting for the arrival of loving feelings and start deciding to act in ways that are consistent with love. Not only that, but we must allow God's word to dictate what is and is not consistent with love. Our intuitions as to what would be a "loving" thing to do are somewhat prone to error. We must allow God to define what love is and what it should do in various circumstances. As any parent knows who has ever had to discipline a child, one can't always tell what love's duty is by simply taking a vote!

Yet properly defined and consistently carried out, love is the most potent force that is available to the human heart. If we wish truly to seek God, it is an absolute necessity. Without love, our efforts are doomed to failure. As the Russian writer Turgenev said, "Love produces a certain flowering of the whole personality that nothing else can achieve." So if we find ourselves failing consistently to obey God and to enjoy the good things that come from obedience, then it's time to stop trimming the leaves of the tree and strike at the taproot of the problem. It's only when we learn the primary law of love that the other laws begin to make sense.

God Bless!

atoz · Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:44 pm Post subject: Re: Fountainhead of All

free fall · Banned Joined: 31 Jul 2006 Posts: 63

That was a nice post Pastor. It was full of good seed!

theseldomscene · Banned Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 7817

Silver Surfer · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 8:27 am Post subject:

When the testing time shall come, those who have made God's word their rule of life will be revealed.

In summer there is no noticeable difference between evergreens and other trees; but when the blasts of winter come, the evergreens remain unchanged, while other trees are stripped of their foliage.

So the falsehearted professor may not now be distinguished from the real Christian, but the time is just upon us when the difference will be apparent.

Let opposition arise, let bigotry and intolerance again bear sway, let persecution be kindled, and the halfhearted and hypocritical will waver and yield the faith; but the true Christian will stand firm as a rock, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, than in days of prosperity.

Says the psalmist: "Thy testimonies are my meditation." "Through Thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way." Psalm 119:99, 104.

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom." "He shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Proverbs 3:13; Jeremiah 17:8.
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Matthew 5:11 Blessed are ye, when [men] shall revile you, and persecute [you], and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.