This week Michael writes that Isaiah 55:8-9 says God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts than our thoughts. His holy Word is the higher standard. The characteristic of God, according to the Old Testament, is loving kindness and tender mercy. His steadfast love is singularly significant, His love is remarkable and extraordinary ... a divinely higher standard than the standard of this world.
In Matthew 5:43 Jesus said, “you have heard that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” This is the world’s standard. However Jesus continued in verse 44, “but I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you and despitefully use you.” Why? Because unconditional love is the nature of God himself. God wants to reproduce His children “after His kind.” He loves us despite the fact that we were unlovable. He has given us His love with mercy and grace, even though we do not deserve it. He loved us not because we were deserving but because God is love .... not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
According to Acts 1:8, Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, you shall receive power from on high and you shall be witnesses unto me. The power from on high is the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the power of this world. Anyone can resent and wish evil upon their enemies. However the power of the Holy Spirit is to love the unlovable and to forgive the unforgivable. This is the love wherewith He loved us, for in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly – Romans 5:8.
Ephesians 2:1-5 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the [a]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
The love of God is remarkable, uncommon, and above the standard of this world. Jesus said, therefore be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. The perfection is not in our own power. The perfection is in the power of the Holy Spirit [the third person of the Triune God]... the power of the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead. For in Christ He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. Obviously, our perfection is not in our sinful nature that we inherited from Adam. Instead, our perfection is in the righteousness of Christ which we inherited from God when we were born-again of the Holy Spirit ... born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which lives and abides forever.
Jesus said in John 13:34, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. The ability to love one another is a gift the Lord gave to us. The purpose is that we shall be His witnesses ... that those who do not know Christ can witness the love of God which is not of this world through His born-again Believers. Therefore encourage one another to love and do good deeds.
1 Corinthians 13 is called the “love chapter”; a higher standard and the “charity checklist” for the love of God, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a declares, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.“
Let's continue Michael's message on a higher standard in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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