My commandment is this: love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
Easter has come and gone and now we stand in the Holy Light of His resurrection. I pray that each of us will be challenged by the Spirit as we move into Spring and Summer. We are wise to understand that Love, specifically the Love of God, is a consuming Thing; and this consumption desires and works toward nothing less than what is best for us. In overly generalized terms what is best for us is the removal of sin and the filling of Virtue.
Christ resurrected the Temple in three days. There is no condemnation for those who are in Him, yet in Romans St. Paul cannot be more clear that we always struggle against that which we do not want to do. We will struggle with lust, selfishness, envy, and obstinacy against His Sovereignty. We will consistently and constantly attempt to build our own form of righteousness separate from Christ’s redeeming Victory. It is through hardship, difficulty, and failure that we are convicted and brought to repentance.
It is through hardship, difficulty, and failure that we learn that His ways are what is best for us and how we may live in them. He wants sin out of us and He wants to give us a life of Virtue. A new life of patience and courage. A new life of joy and wisdom. The Love that wants what is best for us wants to us to learn new and noble things. This Love wants us to become thoughtful and articulate in how we live. His Love wants us out of slavery to sin and free to serve as heirs of His Kingdom.
“God is love, but He is also the Lord of Hosts and must be followed”. I borrow this as it makes our point. Again I pray that we are challenged by the Spirit. Love that brings glory to the Father is love that demonstrates the necessity of repentance before Him and suggests the faith necessary to take the next step in His commandments and teachings.
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