The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1962-03-23
Law Of Love
Lesson for March Is. 1ss.

In the sight Of God. what is
my most important duty? What
can I do that will yield the best
returns in life? It is a happy
discovery to learn that the an
swer to both question is the
same. We know this is true be-
cause Jesus himself was asked
both questions, and gave the
same answer each time. The
strangeness of his answer is
that he did not directly say to
either questioner: DO : any,
thing whatever. The highest
duty and the most rewarding
effort is not action but attitude.
For Jesus reply to these ques-
tons was: Love God; Love your
fellowman. Jesus was not the
first to sum up the Law AMI the
Prophets - in short. the entire
Old Testament - in these two
commands, love to God and to
neighbor; but he gave his ap-
proval to this way of summing
it all up.
Love to God
We have called love an "atti-
Jude" This is not quite fair, for
love which is only an attitude.
never resulting in action, is not
what Christ and Christians after
him mean by the word. Never
theless, love is an attitude be-
fore it is an act. You might say,
love should be the atmosphere,
the light, in which you see, or
think about, God and your
neighbor. Now it is clear that
love to God can't be precisely
the same as love to men, even
the best Of men. From all that
is said of ':love" in the New
Testament - for instance in 1
Corinthians -, or John 10
through II. it is plain that love,
as God approves it among men,
involves helping them when in
need. But God is never in need.
Also. love is at its high point
when it is expended on the I'M
loving and the unlovable; but
God is never unloving nor I'M
lovable. Perhaps we can put to-
gether love to God and love to
man this way: Love means
sharing their concerns. Jesus
the boy was sharing the concern
of his Father in heaven when he
said. II must be about my
Fathers business. As a man.
he was sharing his Fathers con
Germ when he said: II always
do what is pleasing to him."
John 1921
Love to Man
Not all that concerns God con-
Germs us. He has a wide uni
verse to control, and he has not
invited us to help operate
heaven, hell or the stars in the
sky. But strange as it may
SEEM God does have concerns
with men; and it is these which
we can share-and will share
gladly if the love of God is in
us. But the concerns Of men are
different. They arise out Of
mans weakness and sin, just as
Gods concerns arise from his
holiness and power. Much Of the
concern of every man can be
summed up in one question:
How can l get out of the jam
I'm in? Not every one is in the
same kind Of lam" The
troubles of an intellectual mind
wrestling with sore doubts are
not the troubles Of mother
without food for her children.
and neither of these kinds of
trouble is the same as those Of
fsay' President Kennedy. But
all the same. love to our fellow
man involves being sympathetic
with all those in trouble, Of
every sort. a concern and sym
pathy which will pull us into
sharing the load. helping where
and as we can.
On Reading the Bible
We must add a little but I'M
portant postscript. When this
question came to Jesus, on one
occasion he gave the answer
himself; on another. he got the
answer out of his questioner.
The point is that the answer
came from the Bible: but not
fso to speak, from right on ton
OF the Bible. How often do you.
for example, read the book Of
u e tie onOmy or Levitt
Gus? That chapter 6 in Deuter-
onomy has quite a bit in it
which does not fit us: but verses
4 and S do intensely concern US.
In that 18th chapter Of Levitcus
fperhars no one S favcrite chap
ter Of the Blble!) there are
some very peculiar laws. which
passed away when the nation of
Israel ceased to be. Today
people plant two kinds 81 seed
in field, or wear clothes made
Of more than one material, and
never think Of it: modern peo-
pie are not TEMPTED tn tattno