AFC051625 – Love. How much is enough? 😀 ← PODCAST LINK
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Acts 14:22 – 22 There [in Antioch] they [Paul and Barnabas] strengthened the souls of the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith, saying, “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.”
Psalm 145:8 –
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Revelation 21:3-4 – 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
John 13:34-35 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) This post is dedicated in thanksgiving to AV whose kindness has been overwhelming.
During these days of Eastertide, we have been listening to passages from chapters 13 through 17 of the Gospel of John. Some writers refer to this as the Upper Room Discourse because it takes place in the Cenacle during the Passover meal and the Institution of the Eucharist. Other writers call portions of it Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer (particularly chapter 17) because it is filled with prayerful instructions for Jesus’ Disciples (that’s you and me, folks). At the end of John 14, Jesus says, “come. Let us leave.” And they go toward Gethsemane (↔ Music Link). John 15 includes the lesson about the Vine and the branches. John 16 is full of warnings and doom – they are warned not to give up and warned their grief will be immense. These chapters contain dozens of passages that become cherished memory verses for believers.
- “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. (John 14:1)
- “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)
- As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. (John 15:9)
- I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (John 13:34)
- By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”(John 13:35)
- This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
- I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (John 5:17)
- No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)
And there are even more from The Apostle John!
- 1 John 3:11 – For this is the message you have heard from the beginning: we should love one another
- 1 John 3:23 – And his commandment is this: we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.
- 1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
- 1 John 4:9-12 – 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. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.
It seems that perhaps The Apostle John advocated for “all you need is Love.” As he repeatedly pointed out, “this is the Message from The Beginning” (my emphasis added throughout the above). In the Baltimore Catechism §1: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. In The Catechism of the Catholic Church §§290-301, the Church affirms that God – as the Holy Trinity – created all things in Love, and for Love. Time itself begins in the Love that caused, causes, and will cause Life. Time ends in that same Love. Love literally makes the universe hum God’s tune from “Let there be” to “eternally is.”
The “in-between time” also exists in Love and for Love. Wherever there is “not-Love” there is the death of what has been created for the cause, purpose, and effect of Love. Jesus – who is God – commands us to remain in his Love so that our love will be perfected. Going back to the Vine-and-branches statements, if we are to bear much fruit, it must be Good Fruit; and for it to be fruit at all, much less Good Fruit, it cannot come to the Goodness of its maturity when it is apart from the vine. Like the adage says, “Be a part or fall apart.” How do we become “a part?”
“Love one another as I have Loved you.” (↔ Music Link) This is the archetypal mode of anything and everything. One might say that Love is Wisdom because it was Wisdom who was working with, in, for, and through God the Father, God the Son, and the Love between the Father and the Son – the Holy Spirit. That Perfect Love has been broken, tarnished, abused, and mutilated by Original Sin. This is why The Apostle Barnabas and The Apostle Paul included in their missionary preaching ““It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God.” As Jesus is recorded saying in Mark 10:29-30 – 29 Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, 30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and, in the age to come, eternal life. The “in-between time” is The Age of The Church. When this present age ends – most likely in fire as The Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 3:10 (GNT) [1] – 10 But the Day of the Lord will come like a thief. On that Day the heavens will disappear with a shrill noise, the heavenly bodies will burn up and be destroyed, and the earth with everything in it will vanish – we will all be united in the Perfect, Everlasting Love of The Holy Trinity.
How will we avoid or even endure those persecutions? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” I always hear that in two ways: [1] Love begets my obedience, or [2] my Love enables my obedience. All I have to do is Love him – and everyone else, too – and that will be obeying his commandments; or, my Love for him – and everybody else, too – enables my obedience. However that works out for us , it comes to this: Love and obedience working together are enough to “walk through the Valley of The Shadow of Death, and fear no evil;” or succumb to any persecutions. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” If Jesus is our friend, then God the Father is our friend, and God the Holy Spirit is our friend. My Life, your Life, our Lives are in the hands of Our Abba, Our Father in Heaven.
That, of course, means that our Lives are in the hands of Love. Because why? Because God IS Love, right? “ Q: If God is with us who can be against us (and prevail over God?) A: Nobody, nothing, nowhere! We know this because we know –
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. (↔ Music Link) And remember that “steadfast love” is Covenant Love, enduring Love, compassionate Love, Love that is perpetually Faithful and Redemptive. In short, Steadfast Love is God’s method for showing us his Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation. If we give our own Life into his hand, we are either obeying his commands or Loving him completely. And yes, you spotted that: it’s BOTH, not either/or! Every moment our souls shout out Alleluia!, or say, Thank you Lord!, then we are doing what we are created to do and who we are created to be. Best of all, we know how that ends.
See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them.
That is a reset back to Square Zero, back to before the rebellion that produced a shaky-snakey Angel who interrupted the Really Great Deal God offered our First Parents: Love Me and Obey Me, and I will Love you and Bless you. Everything he has told us is designed to help us to be strengthened souls of his disciples and to be encouraged to continue in the faith. God as the Triune source and ruler of all that was, is, or will be has given such Abundant Living Love that our Lives overflow thereby inundating all Life around us with Love, Love, Love. Love and Obey or Obey and Love; either way HE’s got it covered and then some. How much is enough? Just as much as we can (↔ Music Link). Forever and ever, AMEN.
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.
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Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
