Tuesday, May 13, 2008

The Centrality of the Gospel in Ethics and Morality

We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19

Sometimes we’re convicted that we’re not doing a good enough job carrying out the greatest commandment: love. One response to this conviction is to try harder to love the way we should. But I suggest that when we fail in our love, the better method is to saturate ourselves in the fact of God’s love for us. Once we’ve done so, increasingly loving God and our neighbors will be the natural response.
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2 comments:

-Dave said...

I suggested last night at a Bible Study that the reason that we cannot claim to love God, who we have not seen while hating our brother who we have seen is that love is something that is not done with word or tongue, but with action and in truth.

I can't see God, and so I cannot serve Him in a direct sense (thinking of serving in the most practical way, like a waiter at a restaurant). Rather, a (the?) primary way I show love for God is by loving my brother. Love directed toward God (I agree, as a response to the great love he has for us) works itself out as love for those around me

This love is not something I pull up from my bountiful stores of goodness, but is a reflection of God's love residing in me, and working through me.

8:56 AM
Anonymous said...

Last Sunday we went over the Prodigal Son. Even if a sermon on that parable isn't very good, the story is powerful enough to fill me up to the brim with God's love. It's really effective in motivating me to love others.

11:16 AM

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