Jonathan Edwards composed 16 "lectures" on Christian love, teaching through the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians. Here's a look at those lectures in shorter bites for us busy people. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:29:00 -0500 Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:29:00 -0500 The Scriptures teach us that love is the sum of all that is contained in the law of God, and of all the duties required in his word. This the Scriptures teach of the law in general, and of each table of the law in particular. First, the Scriptures teach this of the law and word of God in general. By the law, in the Scriptures, is sometimes meant the whole of the written word of God, as in John 10:34. "Is it not written in you law, I said ye are gods?" And sometimes by the law is meant the five books of Moses, as in Acts 24:14, where it is named with the distinction of the "law" and the "prophets." And sometimes by the law, is meant the ten commandments, as containing the sum of all the duty of mankind, and all that is required as of universal and perpetual obligation. But whether we take the law as signifying only the ten commandments, or as including the whole written word of God, the Scriptures teach us that the sum of all that is required in it is love. Thus when by the law is meant the ten commandments, it is said in Romans 13:8, "He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law;" and therefore several of the commandments are rehearsed, and it is added, in the tenth verse, that "love" (which leads us to obey them all,) "is the fulfilling of the law." Now unless love was the sum of what the law requires, the law could not be wholly fulfilled in love; for a law is fulfilled only by obedience to the sum or whole of what it contains and enjoins. So the same apostle again declares, 1 Tim. 1:5, "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned etc." Or if we take the law in a yet more extensive sense, as the whole written word of God, the Scriptures still teach us, that love is the sum of all that is required in it. In Matt. 22:40, Christ teaches that on the two precepts of loving God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves, hang all the law and the prophets; i.e. all the written word of God; for what was then called the law and the prophets, was the whole written word of God that was then extant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cat's Q & A: 1. Why do you do the right thing? What affects your choices? Honestly, it's mostly the expectations of other people. I don't want to break step with them. I want to live up to what I perceive their expectations to be. This usually puts me farther out of relationship with them in the end. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/305237/ Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:29:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/305237/ Without love to God, again, there can be no true honour to him. A man is never hearty in the honour he seems to render to another whom he does not love; so that all the seeming honour or worship that is ever paid without love, is but hypocritical. And so reason teaches that there is no sincerity in the obedience that is performed without love, for if there be no love, nothing that is done can be spontaneous and free, but all must be forced. So, without love, there can be no hearty submission to the will of God, and there can be no real and cordial trust and confidence in him. He that does not love God will not trust him: he never will, with true acquiescence of soul, cast himself into the hands of God, or into the arms of his mercy. And so whatever good carriage there may be in men toward their neighbours, yet reason teaches that it is all unacceptable and in vain if at the same time there be no real respect in the heart toward those neighbours; if the outward conduct is not prompted by inward love. And from these two things taken together, that is, that love is of such a nature that it will produce all virtues, and dispose to all duties to God and men, and that without it there can be no sincere virtue, and no duty at all properly performed, the truth of the doctrine follows, that all true and distinguishing Christian virtue and grace may be summed up in love. ------------------------------ Cat's Q & A: 1. Jonathan Edwards often uses the phrase, "reason teaches." Why do you think he does this, and what major points is he emphasizing when he does? I think the beauty and timelessness of Edwards' sermons lies in the fact that he teaches very basic reasoning - he is a master of the mechanics of how to move from reading Scripture to applying it directly to daily life. Actually, I think he's only emphasizing what the original text says - "If I...have not love, I am nothing."  (1 Cor. 13:1-3) 2. "Without love, there can be no real submission to the will of God..." How happy are you feeling about doing what God wants rather than what you want today? Better than I did yesterday. 3. "....and there can be no real and cordial trust and confidence in him." So - the question is, on a scale of one to ten, how much confidence do you have in God today? Sadly, about a 3 or 4. Emotionally, anyway. Intellectually, and also on some deeper level, I can say I have nothing else that I rely on when it comes right down to it. Yet I don't live my life that way on a daily basis. In general there is some part of me or other that's out of sync with my knowledge of God's sufficiency - and that knowledge itself is so imperfect. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/300428/ Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:15:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/300428/ Thus love would dispose to all duties both toward God, and toward man. And if it will thus dispose to all duties, then it follows, that it is the root, and spring, and, as it were, a comprehension of all virtues. It is a principle, which if it be implanted in the heart, is alone sufficient to produce all good practice; and every right disposition toward God and man is summed up in it, and comes from it, as the fruit from the tree, or the stream from the fountain. Second, Reason teaches that whatever performances or seeming virtues there are without love, are unsound and hypocritical. If there be no love in what men do, then there is no true respect to God ormen in their conduct; and if so, then certainly there is no sincerity. Religion is nothing without proper respect to God. The very notion of religion among mankind, is that it is the creature's exercise and expression of such respect toward the creator. But if there be no true respect or love, then all that is called religion is but a seeming show, and there is no real religion in it, but it is unreal and vain. Thus if a man's faith be of such a sort that there is no true respect to God in it, reason teaches that it must be in vain; for if there be no love to God in it, there can be no true respect to him. From this it appears that love is always contained in a true and living faith, and that it is its true and proper life and soul, without which, faith is as dead as the body is without its soul; and that it is that which especially distinguishes a living faith from every other: but of this more particularly hereafter. ----------------------------- Cat's Q & A: 1.  How much are you doing in your spiritual life right now? Church, writing, outreach, homeschooling, lots of things. 2. How much of it is out of love for God? Zero. I realized today that I'm plain mad at God. I want a different life than I've got, and I've been blaming Him for the mess I myself have made. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/299951/ Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:58:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ZookeeperCat/299951/