The Law of Love is integrated into the design of every living thing and was meant to be written on our hearts.
See Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
There are no greater commandments! This Law of Love is the transcript of God's character and forms framework of everything else in God's word. The Ten Commandments give us more understanding on what it means to love God and love others, but the Law of Love is the heart of the law, the lenses through which we see the law more clearly. That is why the bible tells us that all the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments of love. Matthew 22:40. The first four how us how to love God, and the rest, show us how to best love others. If you are striving to obey the ten, but you don't have love, you're not getting the point.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Matthew 22:40
The Law of Love is a natural law like the law of gravity or respiration and has natural consequences that don't need to be policed or punished. For example, if you drop something, it falls, if you cut off your oxygen, you suffocate. These laws are not like imposed law where a consequence only happens if you're caught; they happen regardless and are not punishments. If we state the law and the consequence, we're proclaiming truth, not restricting freedom. This is the same as God's law. If we break the law of love, selfishness gains a foothold in our hearts. Selfishness, when borne out, leads to pain, suffering and death. God doesn't then try to punish us. It doesn't make sense. You don't beat a dead dog. However, sin cannot exist in God's presence and our choice to separate ourselves from God, who is the author and sustainer of life, will cause our death.
When selfish desires began to take root in Lucifer's heart, God knew that brokenness, pain, suffering and death would be the end result. However, if He had destroyed Lucifer immediately, it would have caused all of the other created beings to fear Him. Sin would have to mature for the results to be seen. Fortunately, God had a plan to provide a remedy for sin. God would have to allow His beings to fall prey to Satan's accusations and demonstrate to the universe how the Law of Love operates. Selfless love is the only remedy for sin and selfishness. God would humble Himself and become a helpless baby, born into poverty among the animals in a stable. He would identify with the lowliest among us, choosing a family tree with prostitutes, foreigners, murderers, and adulterers. He would allow Himself to be sworn at, spit on and beaten then nailed to a cross and mocked. He would take the awful final separation from God, that we deserve, upon Himself. He, who was the creator, all powerful God, would choose to do all of that so that we could finally be reconciled to Him. We would get it and we would fall in love. We would reject the lies and embrace the truth. We would allow His spirit to come into our hearts! We would become transformed and reflect His glory! You see, God did not have to stay on that cross! He had the power to come down and put an end to the pain and misery. However, if He had done that, Satan would have been right! There would have been no path to reconcile sinners to God and the sinners would have been destroyed.
Many Christians have been taught that Jesus died to appease an angry, vindictive God and that Jesus pleads His shed blood to save and protect us from God's wrath. Wow! This is a pagan concept of God! Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father and demonstrate what selfless love looks like. He took up a life of service, forming relationships with others, bringing physical, emotional and spiritual healing to all He came in contact with. This is what it means to follow Him!!! If we are not engaged in these things, we are not following the right God. His entire life was a revelation of His character of selfless love culminating with His death, the result of a broken heart, the natural consequence of separation from the Father.
Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. John 15:13
Lucifer's charges against God are never about His power and might. They are against how God uses His power and might. They are charges against God's character of love. We have such a difficult time discerning the truth, because Satan has done such a good job at obscuring it! The same lies, Lucifer incited rebellion with in heaven have been whispered into the minds of humanity since they were first used to convince Adam and Eve to break the circle of love and trust.
If God had used His power and might to force obedience, it would have been contrary to His character of love. Love does not exist without freedom and force only incites further rebellion. He couldn't provide proof as the effects of sin had never been borne out and witnessed before. There was no proof! God would need to provide long term evidence of the effects of sin to be experienced and understood. The only way for love to continue to flourish, was for all beings to witness the damaging effects of selfishness and contrast that with the selfless love of Christ.
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