“The Case for Christ: -  Kingdom/God: Love”

Tonight, let us turn our attention to the kingdom of God with respect to the ‘law of love’ required in living in His kingdom.

In current thought, especially in the business and educational worlds, there is much being said about [quote] ‘drowning in information, yet starved for knowledge.’

I think this saying can be applied to much of the information the Christian world is steeped in, as well.

We are given a great deal of information about ‘love’, about its meaning in Scriptural terms, about how it is applied in various situations.

One of my main concerns in all of this, is that we do not consider our Scriptural gleanings together as that much more ‘information’.

This is why I keep admonishing to take all these things before the Lord in our own hearts - to apply information into the gaining of the knowledge of Christ. 

With this in mind, tonight, I am speaking specifically of the knowledge of Christ in the law of His love.

Thus my question starts with: ‘How much do we really know about the ‘love’ Jesus spoke of that supports the kingdom of God in our own lives?’

To begin with, let us first look at a very specific example given to us in the Old Testament.

For this, we go over to 1 Samuel, chapters 24 and 26. It is in those chapters that we find an illustration shown in David’s encounters with Saul.   

As you well know, Saul was feverishly pursuing David while David kept trying to escape his furor.

In chapter 24, Saul, with his three thousand men, was in the cave at En-gedi where they slept for the night.

On seeing this as an opportunity to end the pursuit, David’s men strongly suggested overtaking Saul and his men.

David, however, could not agree with this plan. Instead, all he did was to cut off a portion of Saul’s tunic when they found him asleep.

And, even at that, ‘...it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.

And he said unto his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.

So David restrained his servants with these words, and persuaded them not to rise against Saul...’. (24:4-6)

And, when he personally spoke to Saul, he urged Saul to let the Lord be the impartial Judge between them to settle the matter.

But, if Saul did not agree to this, David was not going to touch Saul. Twice he told Saul: ‘...mine hand shall not be upon thee...’. (vs 12-13)

Then, in chapter 26, we see another opportunity given David to slay Saul in retaliation.

With one of his captains, David crept into the camp where, once again, Saul and his men were sleeping.

And, again, the captain told David that now was his chance to get Saul.

But, once more, David rejected the proposal and merely took Saul’s spear and water-bowl that were lying next to his head.

This time, David outrightly asked Saul: ‘Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?’

And, David, in what follows, gave two reasons why Saul could be doing such a thing.

The first reason he suggested was a look at the possibility that God was using the evil actions of men for a higher purpose. 

And the second possibility was the motives of evil men who were giving Saul the wrong information about David and his ambitions.
 
But, again, even in this, David concluded that the whole matter was driving David out ‘from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord’; in essence saying that, if he wanted to serve a god, he could go to other lands and serve their gods. (26:19)

In ancient times, it was commonly believed that to be driven from one’s homeland was equal to leaving one’s god and being forced to serve other gods in other lands.

This is what gave David a sense of urgency here: he was concerned that his fugitive status would keep him from participating in the ‘Lord’s inheritance’.

It was forcing him to break the first and greatest commandment of worshipping and loving God!

And in David’s heart, that was a blow!

So he asked Saul to stop this pursuit that is keeping him from the presence of the Lord in his own land.

You see - for David, the basis for everything was the thought of God in his life!

He carried the mind of God into this unholy chase and he was letting it rule in these two instances.

He did not dare to stretch his hand against that which the Lord had anointed - against that which is of the Lord’s ordination.

And he desired to worship God aright.

David looked at the rule of God as being the foremost thing in his heart. 

The spontaneous, unrestricted mind of God was David’s inner state and that was what controlled the moment!

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Now, let us go over to the law of love in the present kingdom of God in Christ.

Jesus spoke of the righteousness of His kingdom and of the law of love that dominates that kingdom.

It is the rule of life that goes deep, deep within - that finds the expression of it to be far above the ordinary standards of life.

That is, if any one of us had been in David’s shoes, would we have done what David did when he had the opportunity to end all of Saul’s foolishness?

Would it have been our desire to let what is deep down of the Spirit of the Lord flow out from us as David let it flow in regard to Saul’s evil against him?

You see - much of our virtue is forced upon us by our environment and circumstances - is it not?

We call ‘love’ a commendable virtue. And we express it in words, deeds, and service, and we say we do those things ‘in love’.

We accept them as part of Jesus’ teaching on ‘love’ -  without problem. And that is certainly right and good to do!

But - that is not necessarily the depth of love Jesus desired in living in His kingdom.

To Jesus, what is of utmost importance, is that inner state He termed ‘Life’ that is in back of the ‘virtue of love.’

Far higher, and of deeper substance, is that state that conceives and gives birth to the law of love spontaneously.

Let me explain it in this way. 

We know that forgiveness is all-important in Jesus’ teaching of a working love.

In regard to this, in our everyday lives, to ‘act like a Christian’ means we ought to forgive.

And, we consider these situations that call for the exercise of forgiveness a ‘test case’ on whether we are acting in terms of an unselfish attitude.

But suppose someone injures us, clearly does us wrong, as Saul did to David - what usually happens?

Anger flares up within us, harsh words begin taking shape in our thoughts, acts of retaliation in the most effective and expeditious way begin to dominate our thinking.

All of that can be done in a matter of seconds. And the first chance we have to ‘get rid’ of the obstacle afflicting our hurt pride, we take, without thinking about it: it is the sum of what David’s soldiers suggested as David’s next legitimate move.

And - we forget that the real test, ‘to act like a Christian’, is  - when injury is done - how quickly and deeply we lay hold of Christ in that situation. 

If one really loves, if there is that inner state of ‘Life’ that gives birth to the law of love, then, at those moments, the kingdom of God takes charge.

Then the law of love, coming out from the mind of Christ,  spontaneously performs its duties.

It works involuntarily - it just happens, and when it does, the problem is solved.

And, so, it does not become a matter of just refraining from evil, vindictive actions.

It is a matter of the inner state of Life, submerged in the law of love, actually eliminating contrary evil impulses.

This may be hard to receive and embrace, I know, but God has given us the example of David with Saul, and Jesus had certainly demonstrated it in His own life.

So - it is not so impossible as we may think it is!

Why do you think Jesus said: ‘Be ye perfect, that is, be spiritually mature, as your Father in heaven is perfect’?

Jesus knew it was a possible attainment - or, He would not have given that command. 

So He said, in essence: ‘Let the evidence of that relationship you have with God, your Father, pour out of you - in this moment of opportunity - to be perfect as He is perfect’.

Or - ‘let that state happen - that state that conceives and gives birth to the law of love - let it become very natural to you; in fact, let it become so natural that you are not even considering the action you are taking as being the unusual!’

Is that not what had happened in David’s case with these two instances when facing the opportunity to liquidate Saul altogether?

But - you see - he could do it because his basis for everything was the thought of God, the rule of God, the mind of God.

This is righteousness, this is the law of love, and this only, because it is - in its essence - entering into a consummate and complete fellowship with God.

For God is like that - He is perfect, completely loving only for men’s good, active in good will, perfect in all ways.

So - ‘be exactly like that!’, Jesus said to His listeners.

But - we say: ‘No one can be perfect - no one can control his thoughts so intensely.’ 

‘All we can do, when we are burning up with anger, is to refrain ourselves by locking away those evil impulses’, we continue to argue.

Did you know that Jesus did not intend for men to just ‘lock away’ their evil impulses?

He demanded more than that - He demanded the action of ‘love’, a state that is so alive and strong that it can abolish evil altogether!

This was His aim: to make the followers in His kingdom full of this depth of divine love. 

And, that, of course, does imply a cost - the sacrifice of self-giving. 

Look at Mt 5 once again, and let me read, starting from 
vs 43 onward - Mt 5:43-48.

Vs 43-48: Jesus is speaking: ‘Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy.

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.’

Why must His people do this?

‘That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven...’.

‘Yes’, Jesus was saying, ‘the law of love, not only flows out spontaneously from His children, but also blesses, does good, and prays for.’

That is, it engages the costly, self-giving sacrifice for the good of others!

And that completes the circle of that relationship of the children with the Father.

And Jesus went on: ‘For if ye love only those who love you, what reward will you have? the publicans do that, do they not?

And if you are polite to only your brethren, are you doing anything remarkable? the publicans do as much.’

As I said earlier, we all realize that much of the virtue we see and use ourselves is forced upon us by society.

And, it is so much so, that we cannot tell the difference between Christian and non-Christian virtues.

But, for the depth of virtue Jesus demanded, the essential thing, is the character of God at work.

So Jesus said: ‘Your living and your loving ought to be in in a way far superior to the patterns of the world.’     

And, thus, He said, for that difference to be seen: ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.’

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With this, I will close for tonight.

Once again, let me encourage you to ‘let’ the law of love flow freely from within your spirit.

Give it free rein! Let the Holy Spirit translate the information about it into the working knowledge of it.

May the Lord bless you abundantly in this direction this week!  

Amen. Let us pray!