21st May 2024

21st May 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 John 2v7-14)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


How would you summarise God's moral law? If you had just a few seconds in a hotel lift could you convey the meaning of the Ten Commandments to a fellow passenger? It sounds like a daunting task and when put under pressure we even struggle to remember all ten commandments. In such a scenario Christ's summary remains exceedingly helpful "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22v37-39)


The Lord's summary of the law is love God and love your neighbour. If you recall the Ten Commandments then you know that the first four deal with our relationship with the Lord - we love Him by having no "gods" before Him, by making no false images of Him, by keeping His name holy and by remembering the Lord's Day. The rest of the commandments speak to our relationship with our neighbour - we love by honouring our parents, we do not murder, we do not commit adultery, we do not steal, we do bear false witness and we shun all covetousness.


John understood this and urged his hearers to love one another. He didn't offer them a brand new commandment (v7) but an old commandment made new in Christ (v7b). Jesus kept the law's demands perfectly by His active and passive obedience. Indeed, in Christ the world witnessed true love on full display at the cross. When all seemed dark, the light of God shone brightly and even the wickedness of a cross could not extinguish the light and love of Christ.


Therefore brothers and sisters, we are to love one another. If we claim to be in the light but we harbour hate for a brother, then we are still in darkness (v9). If we hate our brother then we are like a blind man stumbling forward (v11). If we know Jesus then we are to love as He has loved us. That's hard because we naturally bear grudges, withhold fellowship and deal in bitterness or envy. But if we love our brother then we abide in the light and do not cause either ourselves or our brother to stumble (v10). This is the Christian path and the one we must walk as we seek to honour Christ in this wicked generation.


Brothers and sisters, do you love as you have been loved? Are you quick to forgive or do you prefer to hold grudges? Do business with the Lord today and respond by heeding His word. The old commandment is made new in Christ - love one another.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q44 What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us? The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, that because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.