Old Commandment part 5
I hope we're starting to see that we shouldn't do things just to do them. Change just for change's sake isn't necessarily a good thing. We don't always have to be seeking something new. Its more important, and better in every way, to understand what the thing is that will last. You can call it "old" with a negative connotation if you want, but the heart wants what it wants. And the only thing the heart wants... is love. I'm convinced that we (already, now, without even realizing it) do everything we do because of love. Either we think we don't have love and we do everything we do in order to try to get it... or we know that we we are loved and we do everything we do to share that love. The difference between getting and giving. And, by the way, love is never about getting. Because love IS giving. This isn't a new Word. This is the Word that was first spoken in the beginning, when the light began to shine and the darkness was made to flee. God's love didn't "come." It was always there. Hidden, perhaps, deep down inside, but always there. The Spirit of God hovered over the water even when the heaven and earth (the mind and the body... you) were dark and void and without form. We never needed God to start loving us. As if He didn't, but then did. He always has and always will love us. No matter what. What we needed was the ability to receive His love. The ability to know and believe that He does, in fact and in truth, love us. And that comes from the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. David crying out for a new heart and an upright spirit. God never needed a new plan. His plan was always Jesus. Love. The end spoken from the beginning. Love is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. And everything in between. This isn't a new word... this is THE Word. The only Word that God has ever needed. And it seems new because it has been hidden and it is now being revealed. But, again, this isn't change for change's sake. This isn't "new is always better." This is God revealing things to be in Divine Order. This is us returning to our first love--the truth that we love because He first loved us. Our first love is God first loving us. It all flows from Him. All good gifts come down from the Father of light, right? And He is OUR Father, so WE are that light! Jesus described Himself, and us, as the light of the world. Its the same light. The light of love. The light that shines into the darkness and reveals that "old" commandment. When Jesus spoke of the NEW commandment, I believe He was telling us HOW to obey, not what to obey. Love one another... as Jesus has loved you. Receive and release the gift you've been given. Let God love you, and love Him back by loving people. Don't throw things out just because they've been around for a while. Tried and true. Made to last. And, listen, some things DON'T fit. Some things DO need to go. But the Word spoken from the beginning... the Word that is Jesus, that is love... is timeless. Priceless. It is all we have ever needed. And it is what we have always had!