First the Question: The word GOSPEL is not found even once in the twenty one chapters of the Gospel of John. True or False?
Please take a moment to respond at the LLM Question of the Day
And now the answer to the LLM Question of 11-3-2011
Question: The LORD Jesus Christ reduced the Ten Commandments to two commandments. Matthew 22:37-39. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! The LORD Jesus reduced the ten commandments to two commandments when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39). It is not difficult to understand after reading these LOVE commandments the statement of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:5 and Galatians 5:14, “The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart”, and, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Now, out of the 693 responses we received to this question, only 50% of you got it right! Therefore,
Today let us consider, THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 28 of 30
We mentioned, in THE GOSPEL OF JOHN....THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, pt. 27 of 30, the motto of the Modernist preacher.
Quite a different motto was printed on the wall inside a church building where an assembly understood and followed Ephesians 3:1-9. Here are the words that were printed on the wall: No creed but Christ - No law but Love. Undoubtedly, the pastor of this assembly also had in mind 1 John 3:23 when he had the sign made. Note 1 John 3:23, “And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”
John remembered the words of the LORD Jesus, recorded in John 13:34, John 14:15, John 14:24, John 15:12, John 15:17, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments”. “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me.” “This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” “These things that I command you, that ye love one another.”
We read in Ecclesiastes 12:13, “fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man”, and after reading the twenty one chapters of John’s Gospel, we might conclude that the whole duty of man is to receive eternal life by BELIEVING, (not repenting, water baptism, or any work), and then love all the others who have likewise received eternal life by receiving Christ.
We are told in Galatians 3:14 that the person who meets God at Calvary, receiving Christ as Savior, receives the Holy Spirit. In Galatians 3:2 we learn that the believer receives the Holy Spirit by the hearing of faith. In Galatians 5:22 we learn that the fruit of the Spirit is love. There is a love that is NOT the fruit of the Spirit. But the love that God wants manifested by the BELIEVER is the fruit of the Spirit. The unbeliever, or the religious person who contends for a creedless or belief-less Christianity, cannot receive the Holy Spirit. (John 14:17). Therefore the love of the unbeliever is NOT the fruit of the Spirit and is NOT the love that is acceptable unto the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
In Micah 6:8 we read what God requires of man: “to do justly”, “to love mercy”, “to walk humbly with thy God.” We acknowledge that this is quite an assignment. As we meditate upon it we think of the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 7:18, “but how to perform that which is good I find not.” But after he asked how the wretched man could be delivered, he said, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our LORD.” (Romans 7:24-25). Then Christians thank God for the truth of Romans 8:3, what the ten commandments could not do for the human race, because of indwelling sin and human weakness, God sent His Son to do. Then Christians were able to say what Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified (to the law) with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” In this verse we learn that Christianity is both a creed and a life, and why John wrote, “we love Him, because He first loved us.”
The LORD Jesus reduced the ten commandments to two commandments when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Matthew 22:37-39). It is not difficult to understand after reading these LOVE commandments the statement of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:5 and Galatians 5:14, “The end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart”, and, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Note in Romans 13:9 we are told that all of the commandments are comprehended in this saying, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Then Romans 13:10, “Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
We are told in Galatians 5:22-23 when the believer walks in the Spirit and manifests the fruit of the Spirit, LOVE, “against such there is no law.” Love is the end of the commandment. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4). Christ is the believer’s righteousness. (1 Corinthians 1:30). Christ is the believer’s LIFE. (Colossians 3:4, John 14:6). “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” Christ was lifted up on the cross that believers might have everlasting life. (John 3:14-15). How? BY BELIEVING. BELIEVERS are complete in Christ (Colossians 2:10), are blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ (Ephesians 1:3), and in BELIEVERS the Love of God is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit Who is given them. (Romans 5:5).
No creed but Christ - No law but Love. Certainly we should know that John’s Gospel is a Message of BELIEVE, LIVE, LOVE.
“Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” Acts 16:31, while there is still time!
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide. The time is short
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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