The Impossible Command – the first commandment in first place (part 2).

Sorry for the late post recovering from severe Covid illness.

“We give up things we love, for things we love even more” Global Catalytic Ministries

Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice but His birth was also a sacrifice. God became flesh, left the perfection of heaven to join the mess of humanity. Jesus felt, for the first time, human hunger, human cold and human pain. Jesus’ sacrifices were for humanity because He loves us more than life and wants us to experience the perfection of heaven. Amazing GRACE! I can see the first commandment in Jesus’ heart by these sacrifices.

As I start to study the first commandment about God’s divine love, I’m beginning to understand that we can examine this love through an infinite number of lenses for eternity. So, I have picked one lens below to make a start (Philippians 1:9-11):

“And this I pray, that your love [divine love] may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment”                                           Philippians 1:9-11

“The wise of heart is called discerning”                Proverbs 16:21

Discerning: the ability to distinguish God’s thoughts and God’s ways from all others (Jay Adams).

My conclusion at this point:

1. I believe from Paul’s teaching we can abound in divine love, first commandment love by applying our intellect to the study of scripture. As we do this, I trust by God’s grace His love is poured into me as I make this journey in prayer and study (see previous post, March 13, 2023).
2. My understanding of divine love abounding from discernment means that God pours His love into us as we attempt to apply this love with understanding to the myriad of life choices. As I reflect on my life there have been successes and failures in my attempts and I would like to share some examples. First we need to be sure we understand what Paul means by DISCERNMENT.

Divine love abounding through discernment:

It is easy to see first commandment love in Jesus’ heart through the sacrifices of His birth, suffering and death. What does first commandment love look like in the human journey? We have established some key principles from our studies that:

• God pours His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). Our love therefore flows from His love.
• We must pray for and cultivate this love (Philippians 1:9)
• Love suffers long etc. (1 Corinthians 13:4; see previous post; January 13, 2023)

The focus of this post is on cultivating this divine love in our lives and I believe a key passage is Luke 6. 

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”                  Luke 6:37-38

1). I do not believe these are rules or conditions but an attitude of heart put into our hearts by GRACE. The heart, therefore, expresses positively when others are negative and generous when others are selfish. We discern this difference and adopt this God given behaviour to love others with divine love by GRACE and not in our own strength:

Judge not – to pronounce an opinion concerning right and wrong. Jesus teaches that we look for the speck in our brother’s eye and ignore the plank in our own eye. This suggests that when we judge we have a plank in our eye and a ‘plank’ is always greater than a ‘speck’. Jesus is the only judge!

Condemn not – to recognise the evidence against them and pronounce guilty.

Forgive – to let go or dismiss. To overlook. See Matthew 18:21-28.

2). Blessings:

Give – to give to someone for their best interest. I believe this is the ‘labour of love’ Paul the apostle teaches (1 Thessalonians 1:3). The ‘labour of love’ is costly. It cost us something to love this way and we ask nothing in return. We give up the things we love, for the things we love more (we are motivated by honouring Jesus’ sacrifices above the things we love; Hebrews 6:10).

Give and it will be given to you. We gain the divine love of God when we give this way, however, further on in the passage Jesus teaches that when we do not love this way it is like the blind leading the blind. The Body of Christ (individuals and the whole Body) does not grow in love when we judge, condemn and refuse to forgive.

Abundance put into our bosom. God’s promise is majestic and the imagery of the gift is His divine love will be abundant and overflowing in our hearts and therefore actions. 

3). Warning: Jesus also adds a warning to His teachings. 

“For with the measure you deal out [with the measure you use when you confer benefits on others], it will be measured back to you.”                          Luke 6:38

As we judge, condemn and refuse to forgive we suffer loss (Mark 4:24-25). However, if we hear and discern, we are given more and to him who has more will be given more (abundance imagery again). I believe the loss is a loss of God’s blessings. Hatred and unforgiveness bring about more hatred and more unrighteous acts (James 1:20). I do not believe this is a loss of salvation or eternal judgment but blessings from God are lost and therefore the trials of this life inflict stress onto those who judge (Matthew 18:21-35; Luke 18:29-34).

This cannot be done in our own strength but by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5; John 15:5). Furthermore, this divine strength comes to us as we attempt to judge not, condemn not and forgive as weak humans (we must accept that there will be failure). I would like to share some success and failures from my life to try and add understanding to this principle, love abounds with discernment.

Life examples

Loving my family:

My wife and I have been married for 45 years and we do not argue or fight but we disagree on many things. We have had two arguments in our married life, early on, and both were my fault. When Christ came into our lives things changed dramatically. My wife taught me to love. She may not have understood Paul’s teachings on ‘the labour of love’ but that is what she practiced and I abused this love until God opened my eyes supernaturally (discernment by GRACE). Furthermore, we began to accept the differences in how we see life issues (discernment by GRACE) and finally we loved the differences because we could discern that these different viewpoints added more wisdom to our understanding and knowledge of life issues. 

Principle: a cord of three strands is not easily broken. In marriage love the differences between individuals. In our weak attempts to love each other God blessed these weak efforts with discernment of His way of loving. Can you imagine 45 years of marriage with little or no stress in relationship – now that is a gift of abundance from God!

Loving others:

I have noticed in my relationship with others when they are sharing a troubled heart, my heart responds with concern, compassion and a desire to help, however, I also find myself judging in a critical way. I have tried to justify this judging with God by arguing it is discernment but God has clearly taught me that this is not the case. God has taught me to see their trials as a damaged heart, repent of my judgment and pray for the heart transplant surgeon (Jesus Christ) to give them a new heart.

Principle: I believe when we judge we must repent. As I tried to practice this God has placed on my heart a discernment of a damaged heart in others. When I fail, God has taught me to repent and pray for the individual. Since God has given this gift of seeing damaged hearts it has changed the way I pray for others. Discernment by GRACE!

The alcoholic in the gutter:

Many years ago, before mobile phones I would always see alcoholics, unconscious laying in the gutter as I walked to work. Many people, including myself would just walk by without concern. However, one day I stopped with a deep sadness in my heart that this was someone created in God’s image and I did nothing. I reasoned how I would deal with the situation and then noticed a van from Mission Beat across the road dealing with a similar drunk individual. I realised I could do something. I rang Mission Beat to confirm their mission of helping alcoholics, I kept their number and some coins in my wallet so I could use a public phone. Each time I passed someone in the gutter I would find a public phone, ring Mission Beat with the location and send some money to Mission Beat to cover costs.

Principle: by GRACE God moves hearts and by discernment I must recognise these opportunities and learn how to respond, knowing that God has promised to pour abundant blessings into my heart.

The old woman on the corner:

I was driving to work one winter’s morning and saw an old lady on a street corner without much clothing walking in circles. My heart was moved as I passed by but I wanted to get to work early to complete some tasks before the usual chaotic day unfolded. I was in tension for about a kilometre and pulled over to argue with God about responding to the needs of this lady. I knew I could not argue with God but I had developed, I thought, a reasonable approach I called JEDing – Justify, Explain and Defend. I was talking so fast and with passion that I would not give a chance for God to respond. Foolish! God said one thing so softly and with great love that it stopped me immediately: “if I cannot trust you in the small things how can I trust you in the great things”. I was stunned that God had great things planned for me. I went back to see if I could help the old lady and she blessed me.

Principle: every day God gives us opportunities to respond to the small things to prepare us for the great things. Note that He touches our hearts with compassion and concern (His I believe) and we need to learn to recognise this call because I do not want to lose the promised blessings.

Praying for my enemy:

I worked with someone for many years (25 years) who had authority over me and made my life difficult. God taught me many lessons over this time but there is only space for two. I was sharing this issue with my Pastor and his response floored me. He said this was a chance to evangelise. I said he did not understand because I was, of course, innocent and he was the perpetrator. The pastor repeated his statement and encouraged me to take the lead and try to repair the relationship. I agonised over this for weeks. This man causing trouble for me started work late and finished late and I started work early and finished work early. Great I had a reason to JED with God again. Didn’t work. So, I prayed that God would make the opportunity happen. The next day this man was in his office early so I went in and told him I was not happy with our relationship; I wanted it to be better and asked if he would meet with me for breakfast. It did not work as he was too guarded and I was not skilled enough to break down the barriers. Relieved I went to the pastor and told him I tried and it failed. His response floored me – this is a chance to evangelise, you have to try again. I did and the man never came to breakfast so I decided it was done. When something substantial happened in our relationship I saw him as an enemy, my heart was moved to pray for him but I did not know how. It was then that God revealed to me the discernment that his heart was damaged and Jesus was the only heart transplant physician. That gave me a way to pray for him and as I did my heart was moved even more for this difficult man.

Principle: when you pray expect an answer that may challenge you. Your choice is a heart response knowing God has offered abundant blessings for you in this life even when the task is very difficult. Learn to pray for your enemies – for me God by His GRACE moves my heart to discern the damaged heart of another and that is how I start my prays for the other individual. Don’t forget repentance!

By GRACE God provides opportunities almost every day to discern and practice His ways. If we accept these opportunities in our weakness His provision in His promise is unimaginable (pour His divine love and more into our hearts). I do not want to waste these opportunities because:

Godly character lasts for eternity (BE Commentary).

One final thought: we have discussed in the Gospel of the Kingdom that the present realm of this Kingdom is in our heart. We can discern God’s ways because we “step into a river of Grace” when we obey. This phrase given to me by God to remind us that His promises are majestic and abudant indeed. Transforming us and standing with us always.

Written by John and Shirley Ray

Image by leeloo-thefirst