Title: Practice of Love
practice of love
Matthew 22:34-40
13. 2. 3, Love Sharing Sunday
Today is the first Sharing Day of Love in 2013. I should have advertised last week, but I didn't. However, what Sekwang has been practicing for 28 years is 'a church that carries out missions with God and its neighbors to the ends of the earth'. In other words, love of God and love of neighbor. We have been making donations for the inmates on New Year's Day, Chuseok, and Human Rights Sunday in December.
Next week is Lunar New Year's Folklore Sunday, and today is a Sunday to practice sharing of love. So, through this text, I would like to speak on the topic of 'Practice of Love'. I hope that the words you know well will give you grace and that you will put love into practice.
What is the most precious thing in the world? “Faith, hope, and love, these three always exist, but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). God and Jesus are love, so it is the most precious thing to be loved and to practice love in your life. In 1899, Argentina and Chile faced a crisis of war. At this time, the religious leaders of both countries appealed to the people. "Love is the only way to maintain peace between our two countries. War and hatred only pass down blood and death to our descendants." So, a cannon was melted in the Andes Mountains, the border between the two countries, and a statue of Jesus was erected and inscribed, "He is our peace, He makes the two one." The two countries are still at peace 100 years later. Love has the powerful power to move people's hearts and melt hatred.
Which commandment is greater? (36)
The Jewish Pharisees organized 613 commandments in the Old Testament according to the 613 letters of the Ten Commandments, 248 positive commandments according to the number of members of the human body, and 365 negative commandments according to the number of days in a year. The argument for weight was great. Psalm 15:2-5, Isaiah 33:15, Mic 6:7, Amos 5:4, Hab 2:4 became the basis for the argument, and now the Pharisees are testing Jesus' knowledge of the law with the homework assignment. . In this regard, Jesus makes it amazingly clear.
First, love the Lord your God (37).
Even when the Pharisees, especially the well-educated scribes and rabbis, who made a special effort to observe the law, gathered all their wisdom, Jesus made an immediate and lucid solution to a problem that was still controversial, shutting their mouths and putting shame on their evil thoughts of testing. "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength" in Deut. 6:5, "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind". Also in parallel verses, Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27, there is an additional "with all your might". Think of ‘heart’ as emotion and will, ‘life’ as soul, life as soul, ‘will’ as the seat of the intellect as inclination and attitude, and ‘strength’ as active force. The concern is to love God. In other words, it is the duty and duty of those who have been saved to love God with all their heart and with all their heart. That is why the Bible repeatedly emphasizes and commands. Loving God with all your heart is the foundation and driving force of all things, so it is the first and greatest commandment of all laws. Jesus' clear arrangement surprised the Pharisees and is the standard of our faith.
Second, love your neighbor as yourself (39).
He said that we should love our neighbor with all our heart as we love God, which is a quotation from Leviticus 19:18, "Do not take revenge or resent your fellow men, Love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord." As a way of loving our neighbor, Leviticus 1:17-19 tells us not to passively hate our brother in our hearts, to rebuke our neighbor so that he does not suffer sins, not to take revenge, not to grumble, to love actively and to keep God’s laws You say.
There are many people on this earth who practice love in their own way, although their appearance is slightly different. 97. 12. 15 Daewongak restaurant in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul was changed to Gilsangsa and opened, and there is Mrs. Kim Young-han, who donated 100 billion won worth of land unconditionally.
June 27, 2000 Lee Soon-ok (88), an old sewing woman, donated 200 million won to Seoul National University Hospital, and also donated 1 billion won in 1997. As many other people practice love in various ways, this society is getting brighter. Among them, we see that the practice of love of the saints is more and more influential (hospitals, schools, welfare institutions, volunteers).
There is a precious servant of God who passed away on July 31, 2000, leaving a will at the age of 96, “Bury it in Korean soil,” and was buried on August 9, 2000. He made a lot of money as a lumber trader in 1955 and had six children, but he has adopted 87,500 Korean orphans to 10 countries around the world, including the adoption of eight Korean War orphans. Investing all of his fortune, he lived frugally with gifts from his adoptive children and old quilts. He is Ms. Holt, the founder of the Holt Children's Welfare Society, who went to heaven while serving God's love.
Saints! Let's think about and practice the practice of love that can be done even if we can't do great things like Mrs. Holt. Ms. Holt, too, started small with the goal of adopting one orphan for each of her family members, with the goal of adopting 8 people, but thanks to God's strength, she achieved tremendous achievements while she was 96 years old. The 'love of God, love of neighbor' is said in verse 40, "the whole law and the prophets," that is, the gist of the Old Testament. Romans 13:8, 10 says, "He who loves others has fulfilled the law; love is the fulfillment of the law."
The practice of love is the fulfillment of the law. And the practice of love is the basis of the life of faith. I hope that you will become believers who renew the foundation of faith through the practice of love.