(From a discussion about a conversation with the newlyweds at our hotel, David and Jean:)
WHEN SHE SAID SHE COULD NOT FORGIVE HER HUSBAND FOR INFIDELITY, she was saying that she loved HERSELF more than HIM! She worshipped FIDELITY more religiously than GOD! She valued, in other words, his total FAITHFULNESS to her more than his LOVE, more than LOVE ITSELF! For to FORGIVE is LOVE--DIVINE Love!
TO SAY YOU CANNOT FORGIVE IS TO SAY YOU CANNOT HAVE THE LOVE OF GOD! You cannot love as GOD loves, because that's all God does all the time--FORGIVE! God has forgiven His wife the Church for infidelity thousands and thousands and ten times ten-thousand times! He forgave Israel for UNNUMBERED infidelities and the CHURCH for INNUMERABLE infidelities--SPIRITUAL whoredoms!
THE DIVINE SUPERNATURAL MIRACULOUS INFINITE MARVELOUS LOVE OF GOD IS LOVE ENOUGH TO FORGIVE! If you don't have love enough to FORGIVE, you don't have LOVE--because forgiveness IS love! Jesus Himself said following the Lord's Prayer: "If you cannot forgive men THEIR trespasses, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you YOUR trespasses!" (Matthew 6:15)
THEY WORSHIP MARRIAGE--THEY MAKE IT A GOD! It is a worship of the LAW. It is a form of LEGALISM:--It's got to be THIS way or ELSE--ALL or NOTHING at all! It's a worship of the LAW more than LOVE, forgiveness or mercy. It's LEGALISM: "Thou shalt NOT!"
THE WORSHIP OF MARRIAGE LAWS IS A LEGALISM--THAT THE LAW IS INVIOLABLE! The legalists say that NOTHING can supersede it--not even the LOVE, mercy or the grace of GOD! And if they violate the LAW, they CANNOT be forgiven!
THIS IS THE JUSTICE OF THE DEVIL, THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SATAN! This is what HE advocates all the time! "They have broken the LAW!--JUDGE them!"--Just like the Scribes and Pharisees!
"FORGIVE US OUR TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US!" If WE'RE only going to be forgiven the way we forgive OTHERS, and be shown the mercy that we show OTHERS, some people are going to be in a pretty bad fix, especially the churches and churchy Christians, who are almost the most UNFORGIVING people I know of!
EVEN THE PUBLICANS AND THE SINNERS AND DRUNKS AND THE HARLOTS ARE MORE UNDERSTANDING AND MORE FORGIVING, because they KNOW they're that way and they can't HELP it and they're more MERCIFUL, more FORGIVING because they'd like to be forgiven THEMSELVES! But SOME people are SO self-righteous they think they NEVER make a mistake! They're ALWAYS right, so why should they ever have to be FORGIVEN, why should they have to forgive OTHERS?
IF YOU CAN'T FORGIVE, YOU CANNOT POSSIBLY HAVE REAL LOVE OR REAL HUMILITY! You haven't got MERCY, because love IS forgiveness and mercy! Which kind of person are YOU?--The just, unforgiving, unloving, unbending, unmerciful proud SELF-RIGHTEOUS?--Or the merciful, loving, yielding, forgiving, humble, unrighteous SINNER saved only by the grace of GOD!--The LATTER are going to HEAVEN, the former to HELL!--JESUS SAID SO!--Which are YOU?
If you'd like more inspirational material,
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Is this to mean-the're one and the same (God's children--Jesus cares for his own) and / or receiving would make one a child of love...
Another note/concern/worrying uncertainty: if i please--the 1st Commandment --Why from lot of sources i hear and read more and more the lack of the word "God" replaced by so many word "Jesus"---forgive my egnorance but it seems to be putting Jesus above all...so close as to nearly naming him a God or in place of...cannot have two....1st Commandment...I NEED / WANT A JUSTIFIABLE, REASONABLE, LOGICAL, PRACTICAL ANSWER... P L E A S E , Thank you
John 1:11 He (Jesus) came unto his own (the people of Israel) , and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Jesus is part of God, a Member of the Godhead.
John 1:1 ¶In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
We see here in verse 3 of John chapter one that the Word is the Creator of all things. The Word is therefore God for God is the Creator.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
We see in verse 14 the Word becoming flesh. That was Jesus! Jesus is therefore God! There are many other verses in the New Testament that indicate the same. It is therefore not breaking the first commandment to worship Jesus as Lord, as God.