Love One Another, a sermon by Father Malone.Thursday, February 28, 2008 Scripture for Today. I John 4:20-21;5:1-21 ~ Overcomes the world
When we read in the gospels that Jesus urges us to love one another as the Father has loved us, He gives us a divine example of Love.
God is not tolerant of wrong, but does forgive. The wrath of God exists, but He does not make this His choice of priority. God is very slow to anger. He says in the Scripture that he does not tolerate wrong. God is holy, and asks us to be holy. God completely understands human failure. He has given us forgiveness in Jesus Christ. In this forgiveness we have freedom, freedom from God's judgement for all time. He calls us to be holy. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of self-control.
From God we learn unconditional love. Human beings fall short of this divine love, our human nature is basically too selfish and we are not divine enough to love perfectly. God is passionate about you as a human being, not a human doing. God is in love with you and wanted you as His creation. God does not love you because you are beautiful, accomplished, hard working, physically fit, witty, interesting, smart or you provide for Him. You cannot give God enough praise to make Him feel good about Himself. God does not love you from an attempt to keep from loneliness. He already is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has an entire universe as well as His eternal Kingdom. God does not love you out of a sense of duty, you are his choice.
God is in love with you. He wants your spirit to be so filled as to overflow. He does not want your works, he is more interested in your faith - love. He does not want your sense of duty, or fear. He wants love to fill you with overwhelming awe. He wants thanksgiving. He wants us to want to do right, he does not want to be an accuser or a judge. God wants Love. He wants the Light of the World to give life. We cannot give God a gift that he did not give us, but He loves thanksgiving and He loves mercy.
He is the Father that sometimes says no, with only our best in His heart. He is the Father who urges us to fight the good fight, so that we might finish very well.
Our sermon said that if we spoke Greek, we would know the Greek word Paraclete as the Holy Spirit. This translates into "Counselor", "Helper", or "Comforter". Paraklētos, "one who consoles, one who intercedes on our behalf, a comforter or an advocate. Reflects a translation of the Hebrew word מְנַחֵם, mənaḥḥēm "comforter". According to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature: "the technical meaning 'lawyer', 'attorney' is rare." Our sermon from Fr. Malone today, said it is the One who comes along beside you to say, "this is the situation, I am here to be the way, the truth, the life and your help and your comfort."
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