The Eternal Law of Love

Meditations for Ragamuffins

August 29, 2023

The Eternal Law of Love 

“But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.”

Matthew 5:39 

What do you suppose is the greatest obstacle to mastering the life in Christ as your way of life? I think the answer has to do with cultural opposition to the ways of Jesus, so the answer will vary depending on where you were raised and where you are living. In the USA, I believe the answer is a tie between our rebellious nature and our competitive spirit.

Our rebellious spirit makes it exceedingly difficult for us to completely surrender control of our lives and surrender everything and every person within our span of influence, to the ways of Jesus.

 Our competitive spirit makes us devalue anything that we can’t win, or at least measure a positive rate of return on our investment of time, energy and resources. Both of these spirits within us make it very difficult for us to own the words of Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Consider the verse quoted above. How much time and energy do we burn when we feel slighted, or that someone has taken advantage of us, or mistreated us in some way? We may not proactively, aggressively retaliate, but we may stew over the incident for a long while. All the time and energy we devote to pondering and replaying the incident is time we are not spending responding to God who “is working in (us), giving (us) the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

There is no simple solution to this conundrum, which is why the Apostle Paul used such drastic language to express how he found his way to the life in Christ: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me’ (Galatians 2:20a) Stay with the metaphor long enough to recall that crucifixion was a very long and painful death, and you will understand why Paul warned his friends to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12b NRSV).

My Takeaway: Inevitably, we are going to be hurt and angered by the words and actions of others, whether intentional or not. How we respond is of supreme importance to Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit to form Christ within us. Gandhi wrote that “Jesus lived and died in vain if he did not teach us to regulate the whole life by the eternal law of love.” Gandhi was correct in his thinking.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2023 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.