Old Commandment part 4
"Old" is a term that we seem to have misunderstood. At the very least we look at it like Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother: "New is always better!" But that's just not the case. Change for change's sake isn't good. And don't get me wrong, sometimes change is necessary. But when we're talking about the commandment--THE commandment--God didn't make a mistake that needed to be corrected. Look at 1 John 2:8, "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." Did you catch that? Its "new" because the darkness has passed, the light shines, and we can finally see it. And I say "finally" because I believe we've always known the truth on some level. Our heart has always cried out for the only thing the heart is concerned with: Love. Remember the Psalm of David? "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). And that, dear friends, is why David is described as being a man after God's own heart. Not because he had it, necessarily, or understood what it means to have it, but because he wanted it. He pursued it. He was after it. He knew there was something better available. A more excellent way. So it was new, to him, but it was literally as old as creation. God, who is love, created the world through His love. Because of His love. By His love. He wanted to express Himself--express His love--so He needed something to express Himself TO. That's us. That's why we were created. God always has and always will love us. That's nothing new. But we didn't know His love. Couldn't comprehend, or understand His love. We believed the lie that the serpent hissed in our ears that said we had to do in order to be. That we had to earn God's love through our actions. Again, for the cheap seats: LIE. The truth is that God is love and He loves you. Always has and always will. What needed to happen was for the light to shine so that we could see things as they truly are. So Jesus went to the cross--lifted up from the earth for all to see--and shined that light of love. He told His disciples that there is no greater love that a man can have than to lay his life down for his friends. Then He did just that. He gave His life for us, and He gave His life to us. So that we could have it. So that we could experience it as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. He shined His light, and showed us that we ARE that same light. The light of God. The light of life. The light of love. It wasn't anything new, in the sense that it wasn't there before and then all of a sudden was. It was always there. It simply needed to be revealed. Brought out of the cover of darkness and into the light for all to see. The thing which is true in Him AND in you--in us. He is the light. We are the light. He is the love. We are the love. We are not just loved, we cannot just love... we ARE love. That's not just what we do, that's who we are. That's our "new" (true) nature. And when we understand that fundamental truth, everything we do begins to come from that place of love. It begins to come... from the heart. Do it because its in your heart to do it. That's the best (perhaps the only?) motivation we should have!