Old Commandment part 2
Its the idea of our "new" (true) nature. Its new... to the point that we didn't understand it, but now we do. Now we can. Its not "new" as in God needed to try and try again. Its new... to you. In the sense that we've always had it, but now we know what we have. Like that idea of money in the bank. If someone puts a million dollars in your bank account, but you don't know that its in there, you can't use it. You can't enjoy it. But then, if someone tells you, "Hey, about 2,000 years ago I made a deposit and you're a millionaire..." Its new... to you. Its been there forever. But now you can use it. So this New Commandment (for the New Man) is really the Word we've heard from the very beginning. The Word of God that He spoke into the darkness that said, "Let there be light." He inserted something into our darkness. He inserted HIMSELF. He inserted love. Love is what lights up the darkness. The New Commandment--to love one another as God loves us--isn't necessarily God telling us, "Here's a new idea." Its God telling us HOW to do the ONLY idea. Think about how amazing life would be if love was the only option. First choice, not last chance. And I'm not saying you shouldn't call on the Lord when you need to be saved. Of course you should. That's when we need Him the most. But I'm saying if we start there... maybe we won't get to the place where we need to be saved. If you go down swinging, you might not go down at all. If you let Jesus hold you up, nothing can drag you down. But the thing to remember--the thing I'm trying to say in this Rant series--is that "new" only means new to you. Its not something new. Its not plan B. Its the Divine Order of things. And we don't PUT things in Divine Order. That's not our job. Things have been put in Divine Order. Well, actually, things have always BEEN in Divine Order. The "new" part is when God REVEALS them to BE in Divine Order. He shows us how things have always been. How things will always be. He shows us love. Love is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. And everything in between. Love isn't what's coming. Love is what has always been. Right from the jump. In the beginning, God. In the beginning... love. Let me quote a memory verse to try to drive this home. "Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isaiah 46:10). Declaring the end from the beginning. The "new" from the "old." But its all the same message. Its the same Word. The only Word. Its love. Our new (true) nature is love. The love nature. And the nature of love is giving. Loving others as God (who IS love) loves us. Receiving and releasing His love. Letting what's inside come out, by knowing and believing that its in there. That HE's in there. That LOVE is in there! We need to get past this mindset of "I need to change from evil to good. I need to change from old to new." And we need to understand that we were created in the image of God. That we are--and have always been--exactly who we need to be!