LOVE AND BE LOVED, OR BE DAMNED

04-24-22 This message may be viewed live streaming video at youtube.com and tabernacleofmoses.org today Sunday at 11:00 am, and repeated 24/7 thereafter. The video, audio, and study notes are archived.

(Matt 22:35-40) Then one of them [a Pharisee (Gk:  a separatist)], which was a lawyer [Gk: an expert in the religious law of the Torah (Bible)], asked him [Jesus] a question, tempting him [Gk: testing (him)] [i.e., looking for (seeking) a contradiction to the established “perfect” Law], and saying, Master [Gk: instructor: teacher] [1], which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God [2] with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind [i.e., ultimately, three metaphors of the same thing, suggesting “completeness, wholeness”]. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself [compare with the adage “misery loves company”] [3]. On these two commandments hang [i.e., encompass (with strong NT connotations of Jesus Christ)] all the law and the prophets [i.e., a summation of the entire Bible]. 

1.    Commentary: addressing Jesus as “master” rather than as “Lord” (Gk: supreme in authority) indicates the lawyer’s lack of understanding, his unbelief in the deity of Jesus Christ.

2.    love = Dict.: 1. a deep and tender feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons [or to a concept (syn: thought, belief)]. 2. a feeling of brotherhood and good will toward other people.

3.    (Heb 13:1,2) Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful [Gk: (do not) neglect] to entertain [Gk: show hospitality to] strangers: for thereby some [of us] have entertained angels unawares [i.e., without knowing that they were angels]. 

THE UNIVERSE, INCLUDING THIS WORLD

(1 John 4:1-6) Beloved [syn: Adored, Cherished, Darling, Treasured, Dear], believe not every spirit [Gk: angel] [every thought, every angel less they be an evil angel (an evil thought in disguise)], but try [Gk: test] the spirits [Gk: angels] [thoughts] whether they are of [Father] God [or of Lucifer-Satan]: because many false prophets [i.e., lying prophets] are gone out into the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)]. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ [i.e., the Spirit (thoughts) of Love] is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist [against Christ (Gk: the anointing), i.e., against God’s Holy Spirit, against Love], whereof ye have heard that it [the anti-christ(s)] should come; and even now already is it in the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)]. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he [Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Love] that is in you, than he [Lucifer-Satan, the spirit of hate] that is in the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)]. They are of the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)]: therefore speak they of the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)], and the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)] heareth [Gk: understands] them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us [Gk: understands (us)] [the “rhema” (the revelations) that we share]; he that is not of God heareth not us [understands not the “rhema” (the revelations) that we share]. Hereby know we [the difference between] the spirit of truth [rhema (revelations)], and the spirit of error [Gk: fraudulence, a straying from orthodoxy or piety: deceit, (strong) delusion]. 

LET US LOVE ONE ANOTHER

(an expression of God in us)

(1 John 4:7-10) Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested [Gk: rendered apparent: declared, shown] the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten [Gk: only born] Son into the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)], that we might live through [Gk: the channel of] him [Jesus Christ]. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he [“first” v.19] loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation [Gk: the atonement] for our sins. 

1.    atonement = Heb: to cover; fig. to placate or cancel: appease, cleanse, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, purge, (make) reconciliation.

2.    atonement = Gk: (fig. adjustment), that is, restoration to (the divine) favor: reconciliation.

a.     reconcile = Dict.: 1. to make friendly again or win over to a friendly attitude. 2. to settle (a quarrel, etc.) or compose (a difference, etc.). 3. to make (arguments, ideas, texts, etc.) consistent, compatible, etc.; bring into harmony. 4. to make content, submissive or acquiescent, (to become reconciled to one’s lot).

(John 3:16-18) For God so loved the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)], that he gave his only begotten [Gk: only born] Son, that whosoever believeth [Gk: has faith, trust] in him should not perish [Gk: be destroyed], but have everlasting life [i.e., happy cognitive awareness, for ever]. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn [Gk: damn] the world; but that the world through him might be saved [evangelized]. He that believeth on him is not condemned [Gk: damned]: but he that believeth not is condemned [Gk: damned] already [Gk: even now], because he [because we are already “fallen spirits” (guilty spirits) who] hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 

(John 3:19-21) And this is the condemnation [Gk: judgment], that light [illumination (including happiness)] is come into the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)] [1,2], and men loved darkness [fig. misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness] rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his [evil] deeds should be reproved [Gk: admonished: rebuked]. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest [Gk: rendered apparent: declared], that they are wrought [Gk: labored for, ministered] in God. 

1.    (Gen 1:3) And God said, Let there be light [Heb: illumination (including happiness)]: and there was light [drawn out from the darkness].

2.    (John 8:12) Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light [illumination (including happiness); brilliant radiance] of the world [Gk: kosmos; “cosmos” (universe)]: he that followeth [Gk: to be in the same way with] me shall not walk in darkness [fig. misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness], but shall have the light [illumination, (including happiness); brilliant radiance] of life [i.e., happy cognitive awareness, for ever]. 

Amen