2418AFC050324 – Keeping His Word. ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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Acts 10:25-26 – 25 On Peter’s arrival Cornelius met him, and falling at his feet, worshiped him. 26 But Peter made him get up, saying, “Stand up; I am only a mortal.”
Psalm 98:3 –
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
John 15:9-17 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 I do not call you servants[a] any longer, because the servant[b] does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
1 John 4:7 – 7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea!. Here we are at the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Two more Sundays until Pentecost, and my favorite New Testament reading. More on that later. Right now we have some astonishing Scripture passages to feast on.
Today’s post could have been called, “Who do you know?” I ask you, then, do you know Cornelius?
You see in our Key Verse that The Apostle Peter went to visit a man named Cornelius, a Centurion in the Italian Regiment stationed in Cæsarea. Cæsarea was an important port at the Western shore of Israel. He was a very devout man, perhaps a convert to Judaism but that’s unlikely. He was, however, very generous in giving alms and support to Jews in his area. He had a dream in which a man in brilliant light appeared and told him to send for “Simon who is called Peter” who was staying in the house of Simon the Tanner in Joppa. That’s about 30 miles from Cæsarea. He sent trusted members of his household to bring The Apostle Peter to him.
The Apostle Peter – who had been praying on the rooftop of Simon’s house and was feeling hungry – also had a vision in which he saw a large number of unclean animals – food that was forbidden to devout Jews – and a commanding Voice told him to “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” This happened three times and each time, The Apostle Peter refused to eat what was profane. Then the voice said to him “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” Just as that experience ended, the men from Cæsarea arrived, told him what Cornelius wanted, and he went with them. Meanwhile Cornelius was anxiously waiting for their return. We can imagine he would have been a bit rattled by his vision. Roman Centurions saw a lot of gruesome and dangerous things, but a brilliantly shining messenger from God was totally out of his wheelhouse! If the messenger was so spectacular, what indeed must be “Simon who is called Peter” be like!?
We can see that when he finally did arrive, Cornelius fell at the Apostle’s feet in humble homage. The Apostle Peter understood God’s message about the unclean animals. He, an Apostle of Jesus, was no longer to call the gentile profane, for God had created them to be coheirs in the Family of God. He told Cornelius to get up because he, too, was merely a mortal man like him. Cornelius was very devout, very generous and kind, but he did not know Jesus. The Apostle Peter knew Jesus and now was charged with Jesus’ command to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (See Matthew 28:19-20) “All nations” included all the gentile nations. As The Apostle Peter explained about Jesus’ Gospel and the history of his life and death, while he was speaking, the Holy Spirit welled up in all the gentiles and they were speaking in tongues and glorifying God. The Apostle Peter ordered that all of them should be Baptized as Jesus had commanded.
Now, I’ve given you a condensed version of Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 10 (↔ Click Link), but I strongly encourage you to go back and read it a couple of more times. Cornelius may have been the first gentile convert. He did not fully know or understand the God worshipped by the Jews. He did know that God expected worship, generosity, kindness, and reverence. After meeting The Apostle Peter, he did know God, and shared in the JOY of the Holy Spirit with The Apostle Peter. His life-changing “come to Jesus” moment is a serious lesson for us. It is insufficient to be “merely Christian” (See Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis ← Seriously, read this book.) All of Cornelius’ good deeds were just that, good deeds. But after he came to know Jesus and was Baptized in Jesus’ name and confirmed in the Holy Spirit, all of his goodness was given as obedience to Jesus’ command to Love.
Belovéd, as we well know, that command most definitely applies to every believer. The Apostle John reminds us 7 Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. We might ask, “Well, didn’t Cornelius show love in all his goodness to the Jews?” Yes, it was indeed a form of love called PHILIA φιλία (philia) {fil-i-ah}. This is a pretty familiar root-word and we see it in other words like “audiophile”, Philadelphia, and Theophilus. It is “brotherly/sisterly love,” and is usually associated with dignity and respect of and for others. The minimum number of persons required for this kind of love is two, and there is no maximum number. What Jesus calls – yea, commands – is AGAPE ἀγάπη, (agápē) {ah-gah-ee}. Agape is the LOVE that transcends all other forms. In the New Testament, this is the verb used to characterize the LOVE that God has. We’ve all heard of AGAPE love, in fact I’ve mentioned it several times in these Aloha Friday Messages. Here, however, is something new and different I learned from Father Al Rubadello many years ago:
Agape LOVE is a love that can only exist for three or more persons. It is a love that grows out of community, not self. God is LOVE and God is Three Persons. When a couple shares agape LOVE, it usually includes him, her, and God; that’s five persons. Agape love is not self-based and as so is not self-serving. Agape love carries with it no preconceptions, no prejudices; it is that kind of love that is usually called “unconditional.” Some folks think that only God can love unconditionally. I do not. My wife and kids prove it. They still love me despite the times I have not have always loved them as well as I could. (See 1519AFC050815 – Do you love me? For details, please.)
So, Belovéd, what can we say about this?: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” We’ve said several times that “as I have loved” means “in direct proportion.” We could read this quote from John 15:12 as “This is my requirement for the end-result of my Love: that you love all of each of you in exactly the same manner and degree as I have loved you.” Again: This is my requirement for the end-result of my Love: that you Love all of each of you in exactly the same manner and degree as I have Loved you. And oh, HOW Jesus has Loved us! “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love.” That’s no easy-peezy sort of Love, is it? As I look at those words on the page, I am convicted of my innumerable failures – some of them monumental – to live up to that one, basic rule that underlies all of Scripture, Tradition, and Teaching: Love God and one another exactly as you have been told and shown. (↔ Music Link) That is consistent with what we heard last week about keeping our connection with the True Vine. We know that God tells us he Loves us constantly. How often we fail to return that Love! How often we let the Foe infest our connections to the True Vine with the devouring spirits of selfishness, greed, and duplicity. Who do we know that can overcome sinfulness like that, and STILL say, “I Love you like Fod my Father Loves you?” I will show you again our Key Verse from the Psalms
Psalm 98:3 –
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
That victory is the victory over sin and death. There is only one way to claim that Victory, and that is to be in the Army of the Lord wearing our full armor. (↔ Music Link) We must put away all foolishness and weaknesses, all that is carnal within us. Remember what Jesus told his Disciples (that’s you and me, kiddos) “ You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.” I really want to copy and paste all of Colossians 3 ← HERE, but I will instead implore you to follow that link. It will take less than three minutes to read the whole thing, If you read all the notes and cross-references, it will still take only about 15 minutes of your day, I assure you, that will be time well-spent.
ʻŌmea, we know Jesus. Jesus knows us. He has called us by name and we follow him. Jesus Loves us just as much as God, his Father, Loves him, and together they both love us as much as does the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life. We will close with part of the Second Reading 1 John 4:9-10 – 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. that indeed is worth repeating – and remembering! In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Remember this?
GOD ≡ LIGHT ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ MERCY ≡ GOD (↔ Music Link – really!)
Who do we Love? Who do we know? Who is it that always Loves us first? Why? Why does HE ask us to Love precisely as he Loves? The answer is mysteriously simple. We are keeping HIS Word to us, HIS command to Love him and each other. “This is my requirement for the end-result of my Love: that you love all of each of you in exactly the same manner and degree as I have loved you and God, your Father, Loves you and ME.” We’ve got his word on it, and we know it is worthy of our trust and obedience. Keep his Word.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
