In this
introduction I will give a short summary of what
this book on love is all about. It is obviously about love
but it is love as
you may never have seen it before. We will begin by going
back to the old Law
worship and look at God's earthly dwelling place. You may
wonder what the tabernacle
and temple have to do with Christian love but it will soon become
apparent.
Under the old covenant and its Law, God had Moses build the tabernacle as His dwelling place among His people. They were to offer their sacrifices and worship Him at that place. God gave Moses the plan for that dwelling while He was on the mountain. It was to have two holy rooms. Those rooms were separated by an inner veil of many colors. The inner room was called the Holy of Holies. The outer room was called the holy place. God sat enthroned within the inner room as the priesthood served (daily) in the outer room.
One day each
year, the high priest
was to enter through the veil into the inner room to present atonement
blood
for God's people. The other priests could only serve in the
outer room holy
place. They were to tend the lamps and the table of
unleavened bread and offer
incense before the inner veil.
The
tabernacle
would later be replaced with the temple in
The Hebrew
writer
tells us that the Law was weak and useless (Hebrews
If the old
Law
sacrifices could never remove the sins of God’s people but the
sacrifice that
Jesus made did accomplish that, why did God ever require those old
sacrifices?
What reason would God have had for that old worship with
their sacrifices? Was
it given for our instruction?
Was not the
old
shadow copy telling me that I must do what Moses was commanded when God
said
His people were to seek Him at the place where He would choose "to
establish His name there for His dwelling"
(Deuteronomy
12:5)? God told them that was where they were to
bring their burnt offerings and sacrifices.
Is the Hebrew
writer telling us that old worship was an earthly copy of our spiritual
worship? After telling how Jesus has become our perfect High
Priest (chapter 7)
he tells us that Jesus has taken His seat by the Father in the true
tabernacle
pitched by the Lord (Hebrews 8:1-2). He then tells how those
priests served a
copy and shadow of heavenly things (verse 5).
In chapter 9, the
Hebrew writer tells us about the old tabernacle design and worship and
he ties
it to our worship. In verse 8, he tells us that the Holy
Spirit is telling how
the way in (into the holy place) was not made known while the old still
stood.
He says that it "is
a symbol for the present
time".
The present time is the Christian age. Is
the old earthly way showing us the shadow of our spiritual worship
under our
new covenant?
He then says that “when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation” (verse 11). He says that “Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (verse 24).
Jesus
entered through the true holy place. If He has taken His seat
in the true
tabernacle, the old tabernacle was not the true one; it was “a
mere copy of the true one”.
The old priesthood served in a holy place that was a "mere copy" of the true holy place. Jesus has not entered through the copy. If He is now seated by the Father in the true tabernacle, He is in the true Holy of Holies. The true Holy of Holies is in heaven. He is in the presence of the Father serving as our mediator.
That old priesthood was serving a
copy and
shadow of heavenly things. Jesus did the real thing. He has
entered through the
veil into the Father’s presence and we have “a
hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the
veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us”
(Hebrews
If Jesus is
serving in the Holy of Holies of the true tabernacle, where is the
outer room
and who is serving there? The old copy tells us that God's
priests are to serve
daily in that room. Peter tells us that we are living stones
in a spiritual
house and a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5)
and he
says that we are, "A royal
PRIESTHOOD" (1 Peter
2:9).
Is not the
church
on earth the outer room holy place of God's house and are we not the
priesthood
serving in that outer room? We serve before the veil of the
flesh of Jesus
leading to the inner room where we hope to go some day ("we
have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the
veil,
that is, His flesh" - Hebrews
10:19-20).
As we serve in that outer room we are tending the lights (Is that not our brethren - "You are the light of the world" - Matthew 5:14?) and tending the spiritual bread of the body of Christ (Again, our brethren - 1 Corinthians 5:7) and offering spiritual incense (our prayers - Revelation 5:8).
We are to offer our spiritual
incense and pray
for all people including our enemies but we are especially to pray for
the
saints ("be
on the alert with all perseverance and
petition for all the saints" - Ephesians
Paul tells us
more
about the true spiritual house of God of the new covenant. He
said that, "you
are a temple of God"
and
"the Spirit of God dwells in
you" and "the
temple of God is holy, and that is what you are" (1
Corinthians 3:16-17). The Holy Spirit is given to those who
obey God (Acts
Just as that old priesthood served in the outer room tending the lamps and table of bread and the incense altar, we are to serve daily in the true outer room of the body of Christ (the church) serving one another. The outer room is holy and we must care for God's holy place. We must serve in the outer room but we must also offer our sacrifices before the new house of God.
Paul tells us to "present
your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to
God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans
12:1). We are members, one of another, and we must give
up self to serve as a part of the body. We must "Be
devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference
to one another in honor" (verse 10).
I
must respect and honor the holy place where God's Spirit dwells and lay
down my
life for the brethren.
God gave that old earthly worship to Moses as a copy of the coming spiritual worship. The old worship copy did not just happen. Jesus made it happen. Jesus was the one who spoke through Moses. John tells us that the Word was in the beginning and He (the Word) was with God and He was God (John 1:1-3). Through Him (Jesus) all things came into being.
Jesus is the Word of God from the
beginning and He was
and is the creator of all things. The inspired word that gave
Moses
instructions for the old worship came from Jesus. Peter tells
us it was the
Spirit of Jesus that spoke through the prophets to tell of His
sufferings and
the glories to follow (1 Peter
Jesus spoke
of His
body being a temple that, if destroyed, He would raise it up in three
days
(John
It sounds like God brought about that old worship as an earthly copy of what is spiritual for us. That almost sounds like Jesus is speaking to us in a parable. We heard the Hebrew writer tell us that the old way of how the high priest entered into the inner room "is a symbol for the present time". The Greek wording says it is a "parable" for the present time.
Does God have a different definition of what a parable
is? That
old Hebrew worship was not a fictional story. It really
happened. Did He make
that old worship happen as an earthly copy of what applies to us,
spiritually?
Was Jesus
telling
us about that when He spoke to the woman at the well? She
asked about worship
and about the Jews requiring that worship be done in
Jesus said those words while the old was
still in effect. He
is the creator and He had put that old worship into effect some fifteen
hundred
years earlier. He knew when He put it into effect that it
would be replaced
with a spiritual worship.
Remember, Peter tells us that the Spirit of Jesus spoke through the prophets to tell of Christ's sufferings and the glories to follow. When He spoke through Moses, He made that old worship happen as a copy and shadow of what was to come with the reality.
The reality is a God of love that was willing to
accept the cross and
sacrifice Him-Self for the house where God has placed His name.
He tells us to
take up our cross and follow Him. We will give account for
how we treat His
holy place.
Paul once
spoke of
our being set free from the old Law commandments and said, "do
not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh,
but through love serve one another" (Galatians
5:13). If my brother is in need of anything, I am to serve
him and minister to
him. Jesus will remember those who love His dwelling place.
Is that what Jesus
is telling us when He describes judgment?
Have you ever looked closely at how Jesus described judgment in Matthew, chapter 25? He speaks of how He will come in glory and sit on His throne to judge the nations. He will separate those before Him to the right and to the left, putting the righteous ones on the right and the evil ones on the left.
Notice what Jesus will say to the righteous with regard to the reason they are blessed of the Father and will be given eternal life. Jesus will say, "Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in - - -".
He will continue to speak of those works of love that they
had
done for Him and when they question having done those things for Him He
will
tell them, "Truly
I say to you, to the extent that you
did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you
did it to
Me".
Those on the left will be damned for not
having done those works of love for Him because they did not do them
for His
brothers.
The
scriptures
repeatedly tell us we are justified by faith in Jesus and not by
works. Why
does Jesus tell us that He will pass judgment on those before Him based
on the
works of love done for His brothers if we are not justified by works?
Paul helps answer that question when he writes about love and faith and spiritual gifts. He said that if he had them all (including faith) "but do not have love, I am nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-13). He tells us that love, "does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered".
He ends with, "But
now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest
of these is love".
Love is greater than faith so true
faith must believe in love. Faith without love is nothing.
Can we see more about our obedience requirements when we hear Paul describe judgment in 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1? Paul spoke of the day "when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus".
Paul says that Jesus will pass judgment based on knowing God
and gospel obedience. It appears that, somehow, knowing God
and obeying the
gospel includes doing works of love for the brothers of Jesus.
How can that be?
Knowing God means
we must listen to His word and love one another:
1 John 4
6
We are from God ; he
who knows God listens to us ; he who is not from God does not listen to
us. By
this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. 7 Beloved,
let us
love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born
of God and
knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God,
for God is
love.
Knowing God
means
that we must know love because God is love. Knowing Him also requires
that we
listen to His word as it tells us about our requirement to love one
another.
God is love and we must believe in love to become a son of
our God of love.
God's sons listen to Him and obey Him and they know Him
because they are born
of Him.
In the verses
that
follow, John will write that love is seen in God sending His Son and "if
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" and "if
we love one another, God abides
in us, and His love is perfected in us".
We can see love when we see the cross of Jesus. Because
He loved us that much, we "ought" to love one
another also.
The word "ought" comes from the Greek word "opheilo". When we look up that word in Strongs Definitions, we see that it means to "be in debt for". Is Jesus telling us (through John) that gospel obedience requires that we pay our new debt of love?
Jesus paid our old debt for sin and He has
forgiven us of that
great debt (if we have made Him LORD) but we now owe the debt of love
to our
brothers. That sounds like Paul telling us to, "Owe
nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who
loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law" (Romans
13:8). We must pay our debt of love to fulfill the Law.
The Law
demanded
that they offer their sacrifices at God’s house, the place that God
chose for
His name to dwell. I am to fulfill the Law and bring my
sacrifices of love to
that holy place. I must hear Moses say,
“But you shall
seek the LORD at the place which the LORD your God will choose from all
your
tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you
shall come”
(Deuteronomy
12:5). God has established His
name at His dwelling place, the church. That is where I am to
bring my
sacrifices.
Is that why
He
will tell those on the right that they will have eternal life because
of their
works of love for His brothers? Will they have obeyed the
gospel of love? The
ones who do not listen to His voice and love others do not know God.
They will
see His vengeance when He comes in flaming fire.
When Paul spoke of
our gospel obedience and said that "if
we have
become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall
also be
in the likeness of His resurrection", he
included our being crucified with Him (Romans 6:4-6). We
can't be raised up as
a new body in Christ if the old body of sin was not put to
death. We must die
to self and live for Him. We do that by living for His
brothers.
If we obey
Him and
pay our debt, God abides in us and His love is perfected in
us. The one who
does not listen to His voice and love others does not know God. The
ones who do
not know God are the ones that Paul said will see His vengeance when He
comes
in flaming fire.
The gospel
means
"good news". The gospel is the news of the death, burial and
resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:1-6). It is the good
news that Jesus
gave us when He said, "For
God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but
have eternal life"
(John
In another
John
This is a
different response to the same gospel message.
Or is it the same response? If we really believe in
Jesus, we will believe that
He will keep His promises. He promises to reward those who
will have obeyed Him
and offered their sacrifices of love at the place where His name
dwells. The
name of God dwells in His holy place. It dwells in my brother in
Christ. I "ought" to pay my
debt
and lay down my life at the holy place where God's name dwells.
I must love and
serve at the place where His name dwells:
Hebrews 6
10
For God is not
unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown
toward His
name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.
We show love
toward His name by ministering to the saints. I am to carry my cross
and offer
my sacrifices before the house where God has chosen for His name to
dwell and
serve my brother in Christ. If my brother is in need of
anything I am to serve
him. Jesus will remember those who love His dwelling place.
Will He not mention
it in judgment?
That old worship was never intended as the true worship. It was only the earthly copy that God caused to happen for our instruction. The old covenant had a Law and worship that could never bring the perfection necessary for man to be able to draw near to God but it does show us the true way home.
Remember, it
was a "symbol" for the
present
time. We must go by way of the cross, the way of love.
We are to serve Him
daily in the true holy place. The outer room is holy and we
must love and honor
His holy place.
We asked that question, previously. How can it be that knowing God and obeying the gospel relate to our doing works of love for the brothers of Jesus? We have seen how the gospel message is the good news of how Jesus carried a cross for His brothers. Obedience to that gospel requires one to also carry a cross. We must carry a spiritual cross and lay down our life for those same brothers.
Is that
not why John wrote about how God's love was shown when He laid down His
for us
and we "ought" to lay down
our lives for the brethren? Must we do it by loving
them "in
deed and truth"? If we give them food when
they are hungry and water when they
are thirsty and do anything else for them in their time of need, will
we not be
obeying the gospel of love?
If we obey the
gospel of love and pay our debt by helping those who are in need, God
promises
to reward us. We must pay our debt of love so as to please the Father
and not
man. Jesus tells us that when we give to the poor, we must do
it in secrete so
that our reward will come from the Father and not from men (Matthew
6:1-4). If
we have been obedient to the Father, Jesus tells us that “I
am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every
man according to what he has done” (Revelation
Paul received
support from the Philippians (Philippians
Jesus said
that we will be rewarded according to what we have done. He
said that it will
come to those who are not seeking glory by being seen of men but by
God. Paul
told them that what they had given to him was “a
fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice , well-pleasing to God”.
When Paul
spoke of
the day when Jesus will be revealed in flaming fire, he spoke of the
affliction
they were enduring and said how “it
is only just for
God to repay with affliction those who afflict you”. The ones on the left will
include some who will have afflicted
His brothers. Some of them will have afflicted His brothers
and others will
have just ignored them.
Remember, the rich man ignored Lazarus and let him starve at his gate (Luke, chapter 16). He later found himself in torment. In the same way, Jesus will tell those on the left that they are condemned for not having done those works of love for Him when they did not do them for His brothers. They will not have known God or obeyed the gospel of love because God is Love and they will not have known love.
Our
first love must be for the Lord. We must show our love with our
obedience. We
must obey Him and love all people so that we may be God’s sons but we
must
especially love His brothers, His holy dwelling place.
Paul tells us that
“while
we have opportunity, let us do good to
all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the
faith” (Galatians
6:10). We must love the brethren if we are to have
eternal life. We can know who the brethren are because it is
those who are of
faith in Jesus who have been clothed in the Firstborn Son that are the
sons of
God and that includes both male and female (Galatians
3:26-29). It includes
Christian wives and husbands.
Christian
husbands
and wives, when you look at one another, you are beholding God’s holy
place.
When two young single Christians are dating one another, they must show
respect
for each other because each is in the presence of God’s holy place.
We will
give account for how we have honored and served at God’s holy place.
Jesus once
said,
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even
as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). He
loved us enough to die for us. We are to take
up our cross and follow Him. As we heard John say,
“We
know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we
ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.
That
commandment
is new because it is the command to love the body of Christ upon which
the
Spirit of God has been poured out. Under the old covenant, God’s Spirit
was not
present in the outer room, except when it was dedicated and His glory
cloud
filled that room. The priests could not serve in that room until the
cloud was
lifted. His Spirit has now been poured out in the true outer
room. It dwells in
the room where the priesthood now serves daily.
We must love
His
brothers like Jesus loved them and lay down our lives for them.
When He said
that we were to take up our cross and follow Him, was He not telling us
to
follow Him in laying down our life for the brethren? We "ought" to lay down
our
lives for the brethren and love them "in deed and
truth" (with our works of love).
As John said (in 1 John
Love is the way home to the Father of
love. If His love does not abide in us, we will not enter.
Paul tells us
that
we are saved by grace, through faith and not by works but he then added
that we
have been created "in
Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them"
(Ephesians 2:8-10).
We have been created in Him to do His works
of love. The price of that creation work was the cross of
Jesus. If I fail to
do the works that He created me for, will He have done His creation
work for me
in vain?
We heard Paul say that love is greater than faith and that if I have all faith without love, I am nothing. We also heard John say that we "ought" to show love for our brothers by loving them "in deed and truth". We must love them with our works of love.
James said something
like that in chapter 2, of his letter. He tells us that if we
see a brother or
sister in need and do not give them "what
is
necessary for their body" what good
will it
be (verses 15-16). He says that, "Even
so faith,
if it has no works, is dead, being by itself".
He says that "faith
without works
is useless". He had previously said that
"Pure
and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father
is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep
oneself
unstained by the world" (James
We can see an
example of pure religion when we look back at the first century church
in
In the years
that
followed, the saints in
We are seeing what is necessary for maintaining God’s house. God’s house is not made of bricks and mortar. It is made up of those people who are “in Christ”. Should we not consider that maintenance of God's house be near the top of our priority list when we put together our church budget? That means giving food, clothing and shelter to those less fortunate saints who have very little.
While we
have brothers and
sisters in
When we read
what
James said about the necessity of our works of love, Jesus is speaking
through
James just as He speaks through Paul and John. We can't
ignore what James says
because we think he is in conflict with what Paul wrote.
There is no conflict.
We are truly saved by grace, through faith and not by works but our
faith must
be in Jesus. We must believe Jesus when He speaks.
We must believe Him when He
tells us that we will be judged based on how we have loved and served
His
brothers. We must love them in deed and truth.
John said
that "We
know that we have passed out of death into life, because we
love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death"
(1 John
Our gospel
obedience requirement is to
believe in Jesus and Jesus is love. We must know Him and
believe in Him to have
life. We must believe Him when He tells us to offer our
sacrifices of love to
Him at the house where His name dwells.
If death was the penalty for defiling or irreverently coming near the old holy place that was a "mere copy", what does that say to us if we do not love and honor God's true holy place? We are to worship God, but we must do that at His holy place.
When we serve the
brothers of
Jesus, we are serving Him ("to
the extent
that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of
them, you
did it to Me").
I must respect the holy
place where God's Spirit dwells and lay down my life for the brethren.
Jesus is love, and
Gospel obedience requires that we believe in Jesus. We must
believe Him when He
tells us how He will pass judgment on those before Him. Read Matthew,
chapter
25, again. He really will say those words on that last
day. We must believe Him
when He tells us that He will pass judgment based on works of love
having been
done for His brothers. If our brother is hungry or if he has
any other need, we
must help him. If we fail to do those things, then we are
dead.
We can't work our way to heaven. Love is the only way to His home of love. We must know love and, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren”.
Remember,
true faith must believe in love. Remember,
also, “The one who
does not love does not know God,
for God is love”.
We must know God if we are to
become heirs with Jesus.
We
must do the
works of love that we have been created to do because Jesus will come
and deal
out vengeance to those who do not know God and who have not obeyed the
gospel
(2 Thessalonians 1:8). He,
"WILL
THEN REPAY
EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS"
(Matthew
We can’t draw near to the Father unless we serve in His holy place. We can’t enter through the veil if we have not been serving before the veil. If we have not been offering our sacrifices of love at His holy place, then our faith means nothing.
If we
obey Him and love one another as He has loved us, then we will be more
considerate and tolerant of our brother and there will be less
dissention and
division in His holy place. We must treat Him as holy in His
holy place. I "ought" to stoop to wash
my brother's feet (spiritually).
Remember, we
must
believe in Jesus to have eternal life. We must believe His covenant
promise to
reward those who have obeyed His gospel and offered their sacrifices of
love to
Him at the house where He made His sacrifice, the house where His name
dwells.
If we fail to do our works of love then our faith is dead and
we have not
passed out of death into life. If we are dead then God is not
our God. He is
not the God of the dead, He is the God of the living (Matthew
I had seen the new commandment for me to love my brother and I tried to obey it. It was only recently, however, that I have begun to see just how very important it is to Him when I see that old copy and shadow worship. They only served a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.
They did the copy for fifteen
hundred years to
give us the earthly lesson. We are the true priesthood and we
serve in the true
holy place. We will give account for how we have treated His
holy place. As God
told Moses, "By
those who come near Me I will be
treated as holy"
(Leviticus 10:3).
Seeing that old covenant worship lesson applied to our love for the brethren was not important if we have heard Jesus as He speaks clearly from His new covenant word. More than twenty different times the New Testament scriptures tell us how we are to love one another. We are to show our love in deed and truth. If we have been hearing and obeying that word we have passed out of death into life. If, however, we have not seen the spiritual lesson previously, then the earthly copy may help us see the truth.
Jesus is giving us the lesson
in the Old
Testament earthly copy and He is explaining it clearly in the New
Testament.
One way or another we need to hear the message.
Having eternal life depends on
how we worship at His holy place. We must worship God and not
man but we must
worship Him at the place where He has placed His name and offer our sacrifices at His
holy
dwelling place.
I am not from one of the schools of theology. I am a retired engineer and have been a Christian for over fifty years. For fifty years I had seen what Jesus said about judgment and what He will say regarding the reason that some will receive eternal life and some eternal damnation but it never really registered. I did not understand how it could fit with other scripture so I just ignored what He was saying.
We
can't ignore what Jesus says. We need to keep reading until
we get the message.
Sometimes that can take many years.
You will
notice
that I have used the New American Standard translation for the copied
scriptures in this book. You may wish to also read the same
scriptures from the
translation that you normally use.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
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