Ponderizations of a Crazy Calvinist

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Division is not Love.

Division in the True Church of Christ, is not bearing witness to the Spirit, and breaking the very foundation of the Law of God. And crucifying Christ anew, by throwing back His words in His face, when He made his High Priestly Prayer in John 17

¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Matthew 7
¹⁴But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

A Tree and Its Fruit

¹⁵"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. ¹⁶By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?

1 Corinthians 13
Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

The sum of the Law:
The direction in which all the commandments of the law tend, Christ our Lord sufficiently declared when he taught that the whole law was comprised under two heads. "We are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength. Then we are to love our neighbour as ourselves." he took this interpreation from the law itself. For the first part is in Deut 6; the secodn in Lev 19

From Calvin's First Catechism.

^{I Peter 4:8}

⁸ And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Here, Peter builds upon a passage from the book of Proverbs: "Hate starts quarrels, but love covers every wrong." (Proverbs 10:12) And this is what Peter means: If you don't restrain your sinful nature and desires you will easily become angry with others. You will be unable to forgive others easily. So make sure you curb your evil desires. Then you will be able to love and forgive others, for love covers sin.

Some interpret this verse as if it goes against faith. They may say, "You claim that faith alone makes a person godly and that no one can can get rid of sin through his works. They why do Solomon and Peter say that love covers sin?" You can answer them this way: "Solomon is saying whoever hates another person doesn't stop quarrelling and bickering. But wherever love is, it covers sin by gladly forgiving it. Where there is anger you will find a defiant person who won't reconcile and and remains full of hatred. On the other hand a person full of love doesn't become angry no matter how much someone tries to offend him. He covers all these sins and pretends not to see them. Thought he can overlook his neighbors sin he cannot make God overlook it. No one can cover his own sin before God. Only faith can do that. But with our love we can cover our neighbors sin. And just as God covers our sins with his love if we believe so we should also cover our neighbors sin. Peter says that we should love one another so that one person can cover the sin of another. Love doesn't just cover one, two or three sins, but a whole multitude of sins.

From Martin Luther's By Faith Alone

FROM THE LARGER CATECHISM.

Q122: What is the sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man?
A122: The sum of the six commandments which contain our duty to man is, to love our neighbor as ourselves,[1] and to do to others what we would have them to do to us.[2]

1. Matt. 22:39
2. Matt. 7:12

THE WCF

I. All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by his Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory:[1] and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces,[2] and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.[3]

1. I John 1:3; Eph. 2:5-6; 3:16-18; John 1:16; Phil. 3:10; Rom. 6:5-6; 8:17; II Tim. 2:12
2. Eph. 4:15-16; I Cor. 3:21-23; 12:7, 12; Col. 2:19
3. I Thess. 5:11, 14; Rom. 1:11-12, 14; I John 3:16-18; Gal. 6:10

II. Saints by profession are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification;[4] as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.[5]

4. Heb. 10:24-25; Acts 2:42, 46; Isa. 2:3; I Cor. 11:20
5. I John 3:17; II Cor. ch. 8-9; Acts 2:44-45; 11:29-30

(11) In the kingdom of heaven we shall be freed from all
divisions. The saddest thing in the world is to see divisions among
them that are good. It is sad that such as have one faith, should
not be of one heart. Ephraim envies Judah, and Judah vexeth Ephraim.
It is matter of tears, to see those who are united to Christ,
divided one from another. The soldier's spear pierced Christ's side,
but the divisions of saints wound his heart. But in the kingdom of
heaven there shall be no vilifying one another, or censuring. Those
who before could hardly pray together, shall praise God together.

7) The kingdom of heaven excels in unity. All the inhabitants
agree together in love. Love will be the perfume and music of
heaven; as love to God will be intense, so to the saints. As perfect
love casts out fear, so it casts out envy and discord. Those
Christians who could not live quietly together on earth (which was
the blemish of their profession) in the heaven shall be all love;
the fire of strife shall cease; there shall be no vilifying, or
censuring one another, or raking into one another's sores, but all
shall be tied together with the heart-strings of love. There Luther
and Zwingli are agreed. Satan cannot put in his cloven foot there to
make divisions. There shall be perfect harmony and concord, and not
one jarring string in the saints' music. It were worth dying to be
in that kingdom.

From Thomas Watson's the Lord's Prayer

8/14/2004 11:44:00 pm ::