Old Commandment part 3
I want to quote our key verse for this Rant series again, but I want to do it in the Message Bible. 1 John 2:7 (MSG), "My dear friends, I'm not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you've known it from day one. It's always been implicit in the Message you've heard." We always think we need something more. Something new. Something we don't have. But this isn't anything new. This is the oldest commandment in the book. The first Word God ever spoke: "Let there be light." God IS light. And God is love. So light is love. The light that shines is the light of the world. The light of love. We don't need something new. We need to understand what has always been, and will always be. It's been implicit in the Message the whole time, but somehow we seem to have missed it. At least in large part. Like, I think most people--even religious folk--agree that love is the deal. But I also think there is a profound misunderstanding of the true nature of love. Because it seems to me that people use "love" to manipulate and control. To get what they want. "I love you... so you have to give me what I want." That's not love. At all. Love is NEVER about getting. Because love IS giving. For God so loved the world He GAVE His only begotten Son. Gave Him to us. Because He wanted us to have Him. To know Him. To be Him. To experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. God wanted the best for us, so He gave the best to us. He gave HIMSELF to us. His Spirit. The Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth--the truth that God is love and He loves you. Its nothing new. In fact, its the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end. And everything in between. Its not something we need. Its something we've always had. We just didn't know what we had. We were looking for something "new" because we didn't think we had anything at all. Let me say it like this, "Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4). And just in case we have any doubts at all about what our first love is, check out 1 John 4:9, "We love him, because he first loved us." OUR first love is HIS love for us! When we leave that... safety net, if I can say it that way... that's when we get in trouble. That's when things get twisted around. That's what Jesus has "against" us. Because He knows what He's given to us... and He wants us to just rest in it. Experience it. Enjoy it. And how we do that... is we give it away. We share it. Love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. I'm not writing anything new. Just bringing to remembrance what has been implicit all along. What we've known all along... deep down inside. The desire of our heart is to be loved. And we think someone loving us is something new. But its not. Its how things are supposed to be. And its how things have always been. And its how things will always be. God is love... and He loves you! That's the oldest commandment in the book, and we've known it (on some level) since day one!