jeffjs@ihlpb.att.com (10/05/89)
While I read with interest the recent articles distinguishing the Ten Commandments from the Mosaic regulations and showing Paul's approval of those Ten, it is still worthy of note that both Jesus and Paul summed up the Ten along the lines of Romans 13:9 -- The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." So let us not fall into the trap of legalism in regard to the Sabbath or anything else, as "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). That inclusive phrase "whatever other commandment there may be" would appear to include the commandment to keep the Sabbath. It seems strange that this should be summed up under "Love your neighbor as yourself" -- until you consider those words of Jesus about the Sabbath, and the phrasing *as* yourself. Keeping the Sabbath -- giving yourself the rest you need -- is loving yourself. Remember, always, that these commandments were given not because God wanted a bunch of people under His thumb, but because He loved us. This should be the foundation of our way of life: "We love because He first loved us" (I John 4:19). Of course there's the trap here that one can infer, from that verse by itself, that since He loves us, we will love automatically, we need make no moral effort, we need not ourselves actually try to love. Even if Paul hadn't said "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12), the sentences immediately following "We love because He first loved us" put the matter pungently (I John 4:20-21): If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Sometimes I don't understand the grace of God. In real life, I'm probably pretty hard to get along with; it could probably be said that I do in fact hate some people; I'm certainly irascible; there are many ways in which I am notably unloving, quite contrary to the above passage. Yet, because I have sought Him -- often painfully and with tears and screams -- or perhaps I should better say, because of His love for me, He has recently given me experiences of ecstatic knowing of Him which seem, if perhaps not in duration or intensity, yet in quality, similar to those one associates with the great mystical saints. I have hardly attained to the charity, patience, etc. of, say, Brother Lawrence (author of the little classic _The Practice of the Presence of God_) or John of the Cross, just to pick two (the two of whom I've been reading some of the writings lately). Yet He grants me a little bit of intimate communion with Himself, and it is almost unbearably sweet. Surely this shows that the grace of God is not dependent upon us! It is His free gift even to those such as myself [the Charles Manson of s.r.c :-)] who must try His patience worse than most. I don't really know how to translate the experience of His love for me into love of my neighbor. I have a hard enough time translating it into actual love (as distinct from grasping) for myself. Yet that does not stop Him; in the midst of my own failure, error, and even outright rebellion, He comes to bring me Himself and His love. And isn't that what the Gospel is, at bottom? -- Jeff Sargent att!ihlpb!jeffjs (UUCP), jeffjs@ihlpb.att.com (Internet) AT&T Bell Laboratories IH 5A-433 (312) 979-5284