(August 2, 2013)
The last of these chapters ends with a plea for us to adopt Christ-like behavior in our lives. Paul’s description of this behavior is, at one time, both aspirational and practical. But it is also clearly impossible to reach except when we have allowed our hearts to be filled with the love of Christ. When our hearts are turned inward, anger is rampant. When we are selfish, we steal and lie and bend our lives towards our lusts. There is no good reason, looking at the world rationally, to live by a moral standard as an individual if we do not have the hope of the Lord and His love within us.
On the other hand, those filled with His love are almost naturally want to be kind to others, are filled with love for those around them, and become committed to mercy having had the mercy of the Lord applied in their lives. The standard for behavior is an impossible standard unless we are converted to the Lord and filled with charity – at which point, the standard becomes natural and easy to meet so long as we remain converted. I suppose we can easily test our conversion level by how we feel for those around us (a worrisome prospect, to be sure).
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