Friday, January 31, 2014

11

What does God require in the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments?
Sixth, that we do not hurt,or hate, or be hostile to our neighbor, but be patient and peaceful, pursuing even our enemies with love. Seventh, that we abstain from sexual immorality and live purely and faithfully, whether in marriage or in single life, avoiding all impure actions, looks, words, thoughts, or desires, and whatever might lead to them. Eighth, that we do not take without permission that which belongs to someone else, nor withhold any good from someone we might benefit. (Romans 13:9) (from here)

'Love one another.' 'Love does no harm to its neighbour.' How simple it is, Lord. The commands - 'Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal.' - how simple they are. And neither should we be horrified by your Son's raising of the bar. To not be people of anger and lust and grasping - why should this be so hard? Why not, like him, endure suffering without retaliating or making threats? Why not rejoice in our wives, satisfied by their breasts and intoxicated by their love? Why not be content whether well fed or hungry, living in plenty or in want?

Because it is hard, Lord: it is terribly, depressingly hard. Because we know we cannot even before we try. Because we don't even like the thought of such a life - hungry yet content, beaten yet enduring. You ask too much and make us picture things happening to us that we'd rather think of as impossible. And then you ask still more of us and we feel that there's too much degradation, too much meek self-abasement, no fighting, no striving to improve our plight, no recourse to justice.

But, Lord, they treated you this way so that all might go well for us. So that whatever we might suffer in this life, you are ever by our side and on our side, and we never need fear the reckoning that comes after death. Justice has been resolved strangely, but it has been resolved and one day will reach its consummation. It's because of this that we can endure and not give way to hate or envy. Help me do it! Help me ever look to the joys and recompense of heaven! Help me remember what joys and blessed things I have now! Help me even to love! Help me help others do this! Amen.

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