APRIL 18 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 4) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

 APRIL 18  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 4) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Glory and Honor to the Son of the Living God who “so loved the world” that the Father “willed” the Son to become “flesh and dwell among [the world the Father loved]”. The Son demonstrated His Love for the Father with the Ultimate Obedience to the Father as the Son became the Sacrificial Lamb for ALL the sins of “the world”. It was through this Great Sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary that all Glory and Honor is due the Son who demonstrated such “Love”, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.            AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Taught us in Lesson 1 about our personal responsibility to the kingdom of God and now in Lesson 2 He begins to Teach us the “tools” that the Father will equip us with in order that we may promote His Kingdom:

Lesson 2  JQ#2    “What do you really know about Love?”          Matthew 5:43-48

The first precept that Jesus introduces is the concept of “True Love” and not the “love of the world” but the “Love of the Father” that is to reside within those that choose to follow Him. The importance of “Loving as the Father Loves” and as “Christ Loved the Church” is confirmed for His followers as Jesus states: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) As Jesus Teaches Lesson 2 He also shows us glimpses of the Father and demonstrates that The Father and The Son are going to be The Perfect Examples of TRUE  LOVE and that before we are asked to “love others” we will first be loved by the Father and the Son. In the passage from John 13 we just read Jesus saying that we are to love “as I have loved you” and everyone knows John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” so it is no surprise that the first Lesson Jesus Teaches is our responsibility to the kingdom and in His 2nd Lesson Jesus Teaches us how to best represent the Kingdom of God by Teaching us about “The True Love of God”! Jesus confirms the importance of knowing how to “LOVE” when He states why we should emulate the Father’s Love “…that you may be sons [and daughters] of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:45) Jesus further clarifies that we are to Love as the Father and the Son Love and not as the world loves because Jesus started the Lesson on Love with “You have heard it said…” and adds immediately, “But I say to you…” clearly warning us that the world will tell us wrongly how to love — for the only True Love comes from the Father and the Son who “first loved us” (1 John 4:19) and by Their Perfect Example we are to “love one another”. Jesus demonstrates that He has come to live His life as an example and that before Jesus asks us as His disciples to do anything, we will have both the Father and the Son to look to as “Perfect Examples” of how we are to live our lives. When we determine to “Love one another as God first Loved us” we will best promote the Father, the Son, and Their Kingdom. Jesus continued throughout His ministry to Teach His disciples about “Love” and we see the disciples in turn teaching “God’s Love” Lesson to others as we read the Apostle Paul writing to the Church in Corinth “And now abide faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is only fitting that this Summary Review of Lesson 2 on God’s Love should end with a love statement from the disciple known as the “disciple that Jesus loved” and the disciple that wrote his entire Gospel on “Love” as John teaches some of his last lessons before his death on the island of Patmos in what is described as a “family letter” to “his little children” as John writes: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”    (1 John 4:11)      Could the importance of “God’s Love” be made any more Sincere and True than for the Father and the Son to live as examples of “Perfect Love” and to hold “Love” in such High Regard in Heavenly Places?