Thoughts of Grace

Chinese Lanterns and Japanese Anemone
growing side by side,
transplanted from Grandma Crain’s garden.

Good Morning

Matthew 22:37-40
37 Jesus said unto him,
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it,
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.

For the next few days I’ll share with you what Clarke wrote;
any scriptures or comments I add will be in a different color ink.
I hope you will take a little time to read the thoughts slowly,
let the wonder of it sink into your heart,
begin to catch a glimpse of real love,
then draw nigh to God, as He draws nigh to you. (James 4:8)

from Clarke’s Commentary:

Matthew 22:37

Thou shalt love the Lord

Whatever may be thought of these etymologies,
as being either just or probable,
one thing will be evident
to all those who know what love means,
that they throw much light upon the subject,
and manifest it in a variety of striking points of view.
The ancient author of a MS. Lexicon
in the late French king’s library,
under the word αγαπη, has the following definition:
ΑσπαϚος προθεσις επι τη φιλια του φιλουμενου – Σομψυχια.
“A pleasing surrender of friendship to a friend:
– an identity or sameness of soul.” **
A sovereign preference given to one above all others,
present or absent:
a concentration of all the thoughts
and desires in a single object,
which a man prefers to all others.
Apply this definition to the love which God requires of his creatures,
and you will have the most correct view of the subject.
Hence it appears that, by this love,
the soul eagerly cleaves to,
affectionately admires,
and constantly rests in God,
supremely pleased and satisfied with him as its portion:
that it (love) acts from him, as its author;
for him, as its master;
and to him, as its end.
That, by it (love), all the powers and faculties of the mind
are concentrated in the Lord of the universe.
That, by it (love), the whole man is willingly surrendered to the Most High:
and that, through it (love), an identity,
or sameness of spirit with the Lord is acquired –
the man being made a partaker of the Divine nature,
having the mind in him which was in Christ,
and thus dwelling in God, and God in him. ***

**John 15:15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

*** John 17:20-26
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

Be made perfect (complete) in one . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie