1John 2
4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;
5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him:
6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
7 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Pentecost, which many believe is the birth of the Church. I pretty much disagree with that because the very first Gospel message of Christ atonement was preached in Gen 3:15, almost immediately after the fall of Adam and Eve. For as long as there have been a people of God, the Church has existed; it is as Rom 3:23-24 says, that all fell in Adam but whoever is saved from their sin, their Salvation is by the merit of Christ alone (Is53:4-5), whether that be an Old Testament Saint or a New Testament Saint.

Mat 5
16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 28 (The Great Commission)
18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The Law given Moses can be broadly classified into three types:
1. The Moral Law
2. The Ceremonial Law
3. The Judicial Law
The Moral Law was given the individual because it bore the very nature of God, the image of God which was broken in Adam’s disobedience but restored in the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 5:17). The Ceremonial Law was given Old Testament Israel because these ceremonies pointed to the redemptive works of Jesus Christ (Heb10:1-10). The Judicial Law is what is given the State (not Church) to hedge the Moral Law and protect society from anti-social elements (1Tim1:8-11). Let me give you an example of how the Moral Law functions with the Judicial Law: Jesus says that we are not to lust after a woman even in thought (Mat5:28) because we as believers are accountable to God. Now the State, which deals all people (believers and unbelievers) in society, cannot penalize a person for bad thoughts but if a person were to act on those wicked thoughts, then the State has the power to prosecute that person. This is the difference essentially between the Moral Law and the Judicial Law, which serves to hedge morality in society.

Rom 6

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?

The rate of Biblical illiteracy we’re are dealing with today is appalling, among those who consider themselves as Bible believing Christians, only 1 in 5 of these have read their Bible from cover to cover. If I were to consider the Christian community at large, in a survey conducted: 82% of these ascertain that “God helps those who help themselves” is a Bible verse, when it’s not. With the Christian community exhibiting such a shameful Biblical literacy rate, it is no wonder that Christians today haven’t the faintest idea that there is a Standard by which they are to live, if Jesus is indeed Lord over their lives.

John 14
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

This standard is the Moral Law, which is the new nature we receive in Christ (2Cor5:17), when we are born from above (Jn3:3). The antinomians believe in a Salvation of lawless grace (Rom 6:15) but these fools forget that the very desire for righteousness that is birthed in the believer when he/she receives Christ, is a desire to live by the Moral Law that is Christ’ Commandments because Salvation is twofold. Not only are the deadly wages of our sin charged to Christ but the very nature of Christ (i.e. His righteousness) is also imputed to us and it is for this reason we are sanctified us each day into the likeness of Jesus (Rom8:29).

Exo 20
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And He said to him, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Today, when many feel that they don’t need the Bible to teach them about God, I am reminded about the Apostle Paul who says in Rom7:7 that he would not know covetousness is sin, if the Law had not taught against covetousness. Then am also reminded of James 2:2-4, which happens in so many churches today, where the pastor’s interests in the poor man who desire to know God, is set aside for the rich man who comes to Church. I hope you can see that these discernments are spiritually ascertained (1Cor2:14) according to the Moral Law, where you ought to love God first as even over yourself (Mat 22:37) and second be considerate towards your neighbour just as you are concerning yourself (Mat 22:39).

Mat 7
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Consider an average person today, he/she basis his/her need for communion with his/her neighbour on the basis of adultery or covetousness. It’s as the ungodly typically say: why should I hang out with that person, what has he/she got that I would make me want to hang out with him or her… such is the fallen mind-set of covetousness, which is sin. It is not that we are supposed to hang out with only poor people but our fellowship with others should allow us to question our motives. We ought to take our cue from 1Cor6:14-15 when it comes to fellowshipping with others. Yes, pray for your enemies and those who persecute you… be courteous to these but as a Christian you ought to remember that you will never be able to share intimate fellowship with an unbeliever because you are regenerated/sanctified each day in the spirit, to delight in God and His righteousness (Gal2:20) while the unbeliever submits each day to his/her own corruption delighting in the worship of their own lusts. This separation exists not from wishful thinking but this is what God has put in place from the very beginning (Gen3:15).

John 15
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

To conclude: for a Christian who acknowledges Jesus as His Lord and Saviour, it is critical that his/her life keep the Moral Law (Ezek36:26-27) not out of forced compulsion but out of his/her new nature to please God because such is the faith (James2:14-17) that every true believer in blessed with in Christ (2Pet1:1).

Love is the very foundation of true religion, yet what this world perceives of love is nothing but lawlessness and wickedness because what our world considers as love is nothing but a love that satisfies their own interests and lusts. The Bible teaches us that God is love but to think of God by the standard of what this world knows as love, is nothing short of heinous and appalling. Take the Moral Law for instance, which teaches the individual to put God first even before self and second to love their neighbour as thoughtfully as oneself. Does the world know any such structure in its love? No, because the individuals of the world are nothing but a law to themselves, still imagine the might of God that he restrains these individual in their wicked nature [1Jn2:2] (who are inclined to serve nothing more than themselves) and allows for such people to live in a structured society hedged by the Civil Law that is given to the state (1Tim1:9). That is how good and great God is!

1John 4
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

The reason I feel so compelled to write on love is because it is the most abused term in the world today. Today, even fornication passes of as love but what happens when a child is born from it? The apostate State then gives license for murder through abortion. Clearly this is not the love of God because Biblically love covers a multitude of sins (1Pet4:8), never ever serving as a cause to give rise to sin.

John 15
9 “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.
10 “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

So what then is love? Love is knowing God because if you don’t know God, you will not live practicing God is first and that you ought to deal with your neighbour (people in your environment) in the same manner you would be like to be dealt with yourself (Mat7:12). The Bible refers to knowing God as loving God because unlike the fallen lusts this world wallows in, God is irresistible to the extent that it will not prove detrimental to your wellbeing but would enrich your life instead (Ps34:8). This knowledge of God is available to you in the Lord Jesus alone, whose Spirit overcomes our sinful nature propitiating us to the righteousness of God. We are thereby given to understand that God is love because He is strongly relational being One in Three Persons, a beloved unity which His people are blessed with in King Jesus Christ (Jn17:11).

Matthew 22
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And He said to him, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 “This is the great and foremost commandment.
39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

To the world, love is blind but that is only because they are blind to God. Love is not blind nor shapeless or lawless. Love is an absolute! Just take a look at the anatomy of our own bodies, the design is so complex. Take a look at our DNA and you notice the immensity of details it stores, which even exceeds the storage capacities of the fastest supercomputers today. If God was ever the senseless kind of love the world knows, there would never be such beauty in the details of all creation. So after you consider all of that and realize we are merely creation, we cannot imagine how infinitely awesome the Triune God Almighty is. In other words, if God is indeed love as the Bible teaches, He is not the irrational love the world knows because if you care to look into the Bible, God is absolutely rational, it is this world in its self-serving nature which is senseless and irrational, in being indifferent to the God of the Bible.

John 3
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.

On this topic of love, I would like to touch-up on this popular notion which exists in Christian circles that: “God hates sin but loves the sinner”, which is far from the truth because from the fall of Adam, we all hated God but thanks be to the Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ, His elect are ransomed from all sin by the power of His blood. You see, a person cannot sin unless he/she is a sinner and the reason we all sin is because we all are sinners, and as sinners we hate the truth/light as it exposes our self-righteousness to be lie, which is a horrid feeling. We learn from the Bible that God in His Omniscience knows who are His even before the foundation of the world (Jn10:14/Eph1:3-4). So even though it is impossible for us who love sin to love God because the righteousness of God is contrary to our nature, our Salvation is by no means impossible to God (Mat19:25-26), since Salvation is not by the power of the people but by the power of God (Jn1:12-13).

Romans 5
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Mark 2
17 And hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Rom 5:10 is therefore the highlight of God’s grace upon we who are his elect, undeserving sinners. Those who are righteous in their own eyes know nothing of such grace given to the individual in repentance (Lk18:9), on the contrary they are fools who believe that they are right and God is wrong but to the elect God grants repentance (2Tim2:25) that in His time they would see the error of their ways and submit to God in Jesus Christ (1Tim2:5-6).

John 14
15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

John 15
5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

I would like to put in a word of caution for those of you who are inclined to follow after the Charismatic Church. The Charismatic Church is not a body Christ has instituted because if you care to look into its history, you would learn that it is nothing but an atrocious spinoff of a retard girl (Margaret McDonald somewhere around the 1830s) from a mental asylum, who is believed to have been gifted with visions by some (I’d say just as in Acts16:16-18). We ought to understand that prophesies and revelation were given in its time to the Apostolic Church [1Cor14:24-25] (i.e. before the Bible was compiled in 325 AD) so that the miracles would bear witness to those to whom the Gospel was preached that the Church was indeed from God. However, after the Bible was compiled, all these healings, prophesies and speaking in tongues ceased (1Cor13:8) as they no longer stood as assurity that that body was a Church. Today, many ministries like that of Benny Hinn claim to be Ministries and Churches of God but with the money laundering and molestation charges that is brought against such leaders, we learn that these are merely bodies who serve themselves in their sin, not God. Today, what determines a body as God’s Church depends on how that body obeys God’s word in the Bible without being dependant on any additional revelation through prophesies or the speaking of tongues (Rev21:18-19) because the Bible by itself is complete/sufficient to edify/nourish the Church (Ps19:7/2Tim3:16-17).

1 Corinthians 13
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Mat 7
22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

As Christians, there is a standard by which we are to live, which is the Moral Law (2Jn1:5). The Moral Law defines the very nature of God, revealed to us in scripture and so in our calling to be Christlike, this nature becomes our own (Ezek36:27/Jn3:3,16), owing to our Godly purpose as human beings who are made in the image of God. If you have time, take a look and the study Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the whole Bible, as it expounds on the nature of God revealed to the individual in the Moral Law.

1 John 5
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.
17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

Before I conclude, there is one more thing I need to caution you against. Please know that the Bible is not merely a set of instructions to the Church but it is a set of instructions to society at large, which means that it instructs both the Church and the State. So just as a parent would kill, if their child’s life depends on it, so too Capital Punishment is a power given to the State (not the Church or the individual) to protect society from deadly antisocial elements. You might find this fascinating that nations in the west like Switzerland and Netherlands who have abolished Capital Punishment because they are so civilised supposedly… have legalised Euthanasia! Can you believe that? It’s like Rev3:16 materializing right before your very eyes (God is indeed sovereign). It’s as though their self-righteousness made them break their fall with their own faces when they abandoned their faith, leaving their religious institutions to be turned into pubs and mosques.

Heb 12 (breaking in the middle of sentence)
5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

To conclude, this is something I must leave you with. True love does not start and end with mushy feeling because love bears a character of duty; just like one’s faith is evident in what he/she does (James2:14-20), so too Love goes beyond emotions in practicing Godly duty and neighbourly kindness. We need to remember that true love involves discipline and requires us to mend our ways… straighten us out, so to speak. It is from such “discipline” that we get the word “disciple” because the love we learn in Jesus Christ is not one which allows us to live as we please but to live according to the good pleasure of God. Such love is not merely healthy for our lifestyle but it also promotes a congenial environment for society to blossom in, where the corner stone is Jesus Christ.

1John 3
1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.