Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; When the Lord says “after those days,” in this scripture refers to what he was talking about previously. In Verse 12 Christ mentions that after his death, he presented his blood and his body as a sacrifice for all sin, then takes his seat on the right hand of God. So this covenant came to be after the death of Christ. Paul states continually in his epistles that we are no longer under law, but we are under grace. Grace is God saving us as we are and allowing Christ to put his laws in our hearts and minds.
Hebrews 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. What this verse is stating is basically; where there is forgiveness of sin, there is no more need for sacrifice. We are now headed in a new direction. Christ presented his blood once for all sin, so from that point on God will no longer consent to the blood of sheep and goats. We now approach him by faith, and faith is taking God at his word. So we believe Christ is Lord.
Mathew 22:35 – 40 35) Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36) Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38) This is the first and great commandment. 39) And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40) On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. If we have love for our neighbor, we will not covet the things God has blessed them with, we will not commit adultery or fornication. If we have love we will honor our fathers & mothers. We won’t take things that don’t belong to us, or allow anger to control us and commit murder. Christ took the 10 commandments of stone and condensed them down to just and wrote those in our hearts.
As far back as I can remember, my parents took my brothers and I to church every Sunday. I can’t remember a time in my 60 years on this earth, that I haven’t known God. I haven’t always walked with him, but I always knew he was with me. When it came to understanding love, I never paid much attention to it. My love consisted of my family, and maybe few others, if I felt they loved me back. But the concept of loving everyone, including those considered my enemies, was a foreign concept to me. It always sounded so easy to just love your neighbor as yourself. Yet every time I tried to practice that kind of love, I failed miserably. How could something so simple be so complex and hard.
In the gospel of John 15:13 Christ said “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” In 2nd Corinthians, the apostle Paul teaches the gifts of the Spirit, but follows that up with the greatest of all these is love.
A wonderful dear Christian friend of my wife and mine recently passed away with liver cancer. She was one of the best Christians I had ever known. She was always uplifting other people’s spirit. She had a way of encouraging all those around her. When she knew she was dying and it was just a matter of time before she entered the gates of Heaven, she confided in my wife the thing in life that she most regretted. There was a short time when she fell out of constant fellowship with Christ. She still believed and loved the Lord, but she went back into the worlds ways for a season. It was during that season that her only sister died. She spent the remainder of her life regretting that she wasn’t in a spiritual place to plead to God on her sisters behalf.
The apostle Paul tells us in the book of Galatians 2:20 I am crucified 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. What he is saying, is that he put his life on the cross with Christ, and now he gives his entire being over to Christ. Paul put to death his desire for earthly things. Money, homes, good parties, the fun life, and spends his time in prayer and fasting for the good of the new Christians coming into the church.
It was after I studied this, that I finally understood what Christ meant when he said, no greater love has any man, but to lay down his life for another. Then I realized why Paul said this kind of love is greater than all the gifts of the Spirit. So What St. John 15:13 means to me is this: When you love the Body of Christ enough, to give up your drugs, booze, pornography, sexual immorality, and step outside the things the world offers, and give yourself totally to Christ, you are laying down your life for his brother. That can be taken a step farther and expanded to all people. Then when you pray, Christ hears, when you fast Christ understands, and when you cry out to Christ, he knows your heart. You are laying down your life for others.
There are 10 different Greek words used in the New Testament to represent the word love.
Agapao – to love in a social or moral sense, or to be loved in a social or moral sense from the heart.
Agape – from Agapao. To love with affection or benevolence, plural is a love feast: feast of charity, dear, love. Agape is also translated as Charity 27 times in the new testament. Twenty two time by Paul, and 5 times by Peter & John in there epistles.
Thelo – to choose or prefer, to wish, to be inclined to.
Philadelphos – fond of bretheren.
Philandros – fond of man, affectionate as a wife, as husbands love their wives.
Philanthropia – fondness of mankind. Kindness, love towards man.
Philarquris – love of money, avarice.
Phileo – to be a friend to, have affection for, denoting personal attachment, as a matter of sentiment or feeling – like agapao except that agapao is of the heart and phileo is of the head.
Philoteknos – fond of ones children, or to love their children
The word Love and Charity are used 201 times in the New Testament. 183 times it is the either Agapao or Agape.
Mathew 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love they neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 46) For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans (sinners) the same? Love in these verses is the Greek word agapao – which me to love someone or something in a social or moral sense.
Mathew 5:5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. The word love used here is the Greek word phileo – it carries the same meaning as agapao except this is more a love of the mind where agapao is a social or moral love of the heart.
An example of Agape love or Charity is found in I Corinthians 13. 1) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2) And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3) And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4) Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. 5) Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6) Rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth; 7) Beareth all thing, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all thing. 8) Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10) But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12) For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13) And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
As modern day Christians, we need to make sure we don’t become as the religious hypocrites of Christ day. Their hearts were hard, and they had no love for others.
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