(27-06-2025, 06:56 AM)Ali Imran Wrote: The gist of his post is that Christianity is about love, not law.
Do I need to say whose teachings made the law just an option?
So, according to your criteria, the vision that came to Paul could not be the son of Mary, pbuh.
Here's a juxtaposition of "love" and "law" for a better understanding of Jesus's stand on the issue in question. People like the scribes and Pharisees are more concerned with obeying the letter of the law than with understanding the spirit of the law. Engrossed in the rules and rituals, they forget why the law was given in the first place. Like someone who cannot see the forest for the trees, the legalists focus on fulfilling specific rules and forget their overarching purpose. However, biblically-informed Christians - who have read the friendly exchange between Jesus and a student of religious law; a theologian of sorts - know that legalism makes the law an end in itself, losing sight of the real purpose for which the law was provided. The question is, why was the law given? The Holy Writ provides a clear explanation in Matt 22:35-40:
"Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?' Jesus said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.'"
"The Law and the Prophets" were referred to as the Tanach or the OT by Jesus who added that the entire OT hangs on two commandments: to love God and to love your neighbor. To hang a garment on a peg, the peg must precede the garment; it has to be fastened to the wall before you can hang something on it. Ergo, those two commandments - to love God and to love your neighbour - are primary while the law is secondary.
So you see, the intent of the law relates directly to the two greatest commandments. It was given to produce a love for God and a love for neighbours. Any application or interpretation of the law that doesn't produce these two forms of love is a pervasion of the law's intent. Paul wrote in 1 Tim 1:5, "Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith."
Our common goal - the goal of our striving - is love. If we swerve from that goal, we speak empty words and waste time. Said Paul in 1 Cor 13:1, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I've become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal."
Love is the greatest virtue. It's even greater than faith. But faith is where it begins. However, for demons who believe and even tremble (James 2:19), they never receive anything. Why? Because they don't have any love. They're filled with hate and fear. We must have faith that works by love. To this end, James and the apostolic scriptures admonish Christians to bring forth the works of love. Sinners are justified by faith in the saving action of God in Christ. Such a faith is active in love and thus the Christian cannot and should not remain without works.
Proverbs 10:12 says, "love coverth all sins." First Peter 4:8 says, "charity (or love) cover a multitude of sins." Put these two scriptures together, and they say, "Love covers all sins in the New Birth even when there's a multitude of them." Love must begin to work with the sin problem. Love will not work for you until you're born again and the love of God has hidden or removed your sins.
The Bible says, "Now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). In heaven, faith won't be necessary because we'll see everything. Hope also won't be needed because what more could we possibly hope for? Only love will last forever, because God is love and He is eternal.
That's why it doesn't matter what great thing we do or how much we give; if it's not done out of love, it's meaningless. "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing" (1 Cor 13:13). Everything we do out of love will last forever and the rewards are eternal.In the final analysis, the perfect law of love trumps the law.