How does Perfect Love differ from Law Love?
Perfect Love "thinketh no evil": 1Cor 13:5,
Neither to punish, Nor to forgive: Col 3:1-15;
So why are YOU still thinking evil of anyone, if
Romans 2:1 says such is "inexcusable" behaviour,
as "there is no respect of persons with God (Grace)",
and no excuse me clause either in curse of the Law.
- by grace, it's sinners none, ALL righteous, so none perish.
- by the f-law, it's sinners ALL, none righteous, so all perish.
YOU need to decide which scenario should apply to ALL,
which is not Many nor Few, and ALL is never Some either.
Hint: inDIGnation in Romans 2 is about this:
DIG up dirt on others also dirts YOU too, o man;
and inDIGnation only the 1st of 4 consequences:
- indignation: self condemnation, by f-law others.
- wrath: God hath not appointed us to "wrath"
- tribulation: "double" trouble beyond harmageddon
- anguish: a "millstone" drowning would be better
Hmmm, 4 horses go forth in Revelation, has
only this Law or Law choice: Death1 or Death2...
What then?
Die, reset, play again, till "none perish" = "win".
Comments
I can make fart noises with my armpit.
Actually, I'm not sure there's much difference. The Great Commandments, to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves, are drawn directly from the Torah: the First from Deuteronomy 6:5 and the Second from Leviticus 19:18. Leviticus 19:34 even extends the love of neighbors to include aliens living among the Israelites.
The Hebrew word, like the English one, is less specific about the type of love commanded than the Greek agape, which is love as an exercise of the will rather than as a storm of the emotions. But the New Testament writers were clear about what the Law meant by these commandments, because they employed a verb related to agape when they translated these commandments. (See Matthew 22:37-39 and Luke 10:27.)
The Great Commandments appear to have been dug out of the Torah as part of the popular process, in post-Maccabean Judaism, of attempting to find the most compact summaries of the Law's intent. The use of the Ten Commandments as a summary represents an earlier stage; the Golden Rule suggested by Rabbi Hillel and adapted to a more positive form by Jesus is the culmination. But the leap from the Ten to the two Great Commandments is a leap from conduct to intent, and therefore from judgment of conduct to recognition of aspiration.
This is the same contrast you are pointing out, I think. But the seeds of a gospel based on love and grace, rather than on law and conformity, were sown earlier. That may be what Jesus meant when he argued for "fulfillment" of the Law by going beyond it.