Sorry, that last one had a typo in a Bible quotation that made no sense. Here is the corrected version of the same thing. ************************************* Dear Al, and other Brothers and Sisters in Christ, First let me say we'd be pleased to trade links with any fine, Christian unity website, such as yours, Al, that agrees, as we do, in the love of God for all believers to repentance in Jesus of the Bible. And your point is well taken, Al, about those first and second most important commandments, and we do agree in these things. The first and second commandments are those on which hang all the law and prophets. And the order of the importance of relative levels of love is absolutely vital to what we're doing here in Christian unity. But if those two 1st and 2nd commandments encompass all the old law and the old prophets, where does Jesus fit it? Jesus was both the Messiah, and the long-awaited Prophet whom God had promised through Moses in Deuteronomy 18 (Acts 3:22-26; see Heb. 1:1-4; 3:4-6). His purpose was to fulfil the old law and make it complete. Matthew 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil Then He made it clear the law to be fulfilled by Jesus was the law obeyed in the heart, not the law that commands outward shows of legality and pretense. Matthew 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Then He pointed out the old law was concerned with the outwardly obvious technicality of who does killing. Matthew 5:21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But the new fulfillment of the old law, made complete by the new part brought in by Jesus, was again, the law obeyed in the heart, and most importantly relative to your brother in Christ. When it comes to your brother in Christ, even a word of hatred in your mouth or in your heart, is as bad as killing, per the new, completed law, fulfilled by Jesus. Matthew 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. 25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing. A little later in the same conversation, Jesus talks about lower levels of love that move beyond our brothers and sisters in Christ, lower levels of love that apply to neighbors, to all men. Jesus explains that His fulfilled law requires children of God to show a love of *all* men, fulfilling and completing the old law, which conversely allowed hatred of enemies. But the new, completed law, fulfilled by Jesus, replaced that hatred with love. Mattehw 5:43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. The new part of the law, brought by our Lord Jesus, the long promised Prophet, is His new commandment, again focused always on the greater love between brothers and sisters in Christ. That's why He stated it as His, new commandment, so we'd all notice the difference in what He was adding to complete and fulfill the old law. John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. 13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Jesus said there is no greater love of friends we love in this life than to effectively, figuratively, lay down our lives for the exact same believers for which His love caused Him to lay down His life, by His eternal love for every single brother and sister through faith in Christ. Loving our neighbor *as* ourselves is a lesser love than eternal, brotherly love, which is part of God's love. Our neighbor will someday disappear, without his belief to repentance in Jesus. Our love for our neighbor is to make Him see that God's eternal love is *available* to him in Jesus. But this love of the brethren is a *greater* love, loving one another *instead* of ourselves, loving with our lives laid down for our brethren in Christ, and loving each other eternally. And John makes it abolutely clear that this new commandment of Jesus is part of the first commandment, the greatest commandment, which is to love God, not the second, lesser commandment to love all men. 1 John 4:21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also. So, Al, we have not overlooked the first and second most important commandments. In Christian unity, we obey the new commandment of Jesus, and in so doing, we obey the commandment that *fulfills* and *makes complete* all the old law and the prophets. All Christian denominations and groups have been right, and all have been wrong. We all found the requirement for faith in the blood of Christ to pay for our sins of which we do repent. We *all* found that. We're all right about that. That is the gospel, good news of available redemption that begins with faith in Christ. Then we all found other doctrines to make us better than the other Christians. That desire to set ourselves apart as better than other believers by doctrines beyond the cross, drove us to hold up our separate doctrines as our worship offering on the altar of God, while denying that very same new commandment in which we were all made equal in the love of God for every believer through faith in Christ. There's lots of good, true, doctrine beyond the blood of Jesus, but none more important. And that important, good news, gospel of the cross, the news available through any believer and understood by all, in any Christian group or denomination, is what the lost and dying world needs to hear. That's why here, now, in Christian unity in agape brotherly love and holiness, we stress the part that we've all left behind for so long. Our statement of faith focuses on unity in love for all who believe to repentance in Jesus of the Bible. It not only includes all the old law and the prophets, it fulfills and makes them complete, once and for all. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Now we're going to show the world *His* righteousness, not ours. Now, together in this Christian unity in love for all who believe to repentance in Jesus, we no longer come short of His glory. Together in God's love for every believer we show the world the glory of God that the one, true God sent to the earth in His living Son, Jesus, and the glory that Jesus gave us to make us one with Him and His Father in their eternal love for us all. John 17:22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 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. John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. That's the good news of the eternal love in which we will all spend eternity together. Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Love in Jesus, Tim ****************************************************** Hear free email discussion about Christian unity & either join in discussion or just lurk and listen at these links: Antioch-Fellowship email group at YahooGroups Christian unity with prophetic voices: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/antioch-fellowship Christianunity email group at Associate.com Christian unity in holiness and agape brotherly love: http://associate.com/digests/christianunity/ You can find info about a combined effort on a large prayer for Christian unity, called the "Christian Unity Prayer Project" (CUPP), by going to the following URL: http://www.superior.net/~pjrcmr/prayerparts.html Also please see the Introduction to the Christian Unity Prophecy at the following address: http://home.swbell.net/twarlick/christianunityprophecy/intro.htm ****************************************************** ----- Original Message ----- From: <AbbaWorldWide@...> To: <christianunity@...> Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 8:03 AM Subject: Re: [CU] Re:Prayer group for world wide, spiritual Christian unity in love If you are looking for a statement of faith. look no further than what Jesus said: 1. Love God with all of your heart, soul and mind and 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all of the the other requirements. And of course the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, and Lord. In the Kingdom, Al PS I'd like to link the Abba World Wide Ministry homepage to the new Unity web site. (When we complete the new one). -- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to <christianunity-unsubscribe@...>