Our Learning Is To Lead to Love Not Walls

Paul says:

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Then John comes and says:

23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

If our understanding is not leading us to love, then our understanding is not from God. I have really struggled with this as of late. As I look back over the past years, it seems the more I understand the more walls I built. So I used my so called understanding of God, not to love, encourage, honor, respect, serve and surrender to others. I used it to separate from others. That seems to be the 180 degrees from what the New Covenant scriptures talk about.

In Ephesians 2:14-18, we see Paul talking about how Christ’s work tore down the wall of hostility, which was the law, the thing that separated Jew from Gentile, that thing that alienated the Gentile from God’s favor, the thing that made us God’s enemy and He did that through His shed blood. Earlier in Paul’s writing, in Galatians he talks about there is no “Jew nor Greek, slave nor free…..” because we have all been brought into one body through one faith. Paul will talk more about this in Ephesians 4:1-13.

I understand exegetically Paul is speaking primarily about the Old Covenant; however, this puts an end to all “law” that attempts to separate Christ’s body, because Christ has abolished the LAW and anything that comes up against this abolishment and new unity would seem to overstep or undo Christ’s work on the cross.

I have been guilty of this in my own life, the very truth that I have embraced, the truth that I said comes from God has been used to erect a new law, which separates Christ body. Rather it is New Covenant, Calvinistic, Baptistic, Organic, House Church, Arminian, Denominationalism…. you name it. If we present anything in a way that causes division in Christ’s body (unless of course something has attached itself as part of the body but never was Galatians 1, 1 Timothy 1 and Philippians 3 deals with this) then we are now building a new wall in place of the wall Christ has destroyed and that my friend is very, very scary.

In our understanding love is the key. To KNOW the Son is to know love, experience love and walk in love. If we are not doing those things, then our understanding may not be generated by the Spirit and by all standards is not the knowledge that we have been instructed to pursue by the New Testament writers. The knowledge of the New Testament produces, unity, love, peace, joy, patience, long-suffering, kindness, gentleness and honor. Because the knowledge of the New Testament is experiential more than it is cognitive or theoretical. The knowledge of the New Testament ONLY comes from God, through the work of His Spirit that indwells His children. If our knowledge is causing us to separate from His children then it isn’t His knowledge, especially in light of Jesus’ prayer in John 17:

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

So the challenge today is, is your knowledge building love or walls? If it is the former then it is from God, if it is the latter then it is the knowledge of the world, the knowledge that puffs up, the knowledge that Paul says “is foolishness”.