Matt. 6:25 (NIV), “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”
The Greek word for ‘worry’ is μεριμνάω merimnaō. It means “to be anxious about, to have a distracting care.”
If I know Christ died, descended into Sheol, resurrected, was glorified, ascended on High, and sat down for me then the knowledge of His completed work based on His love and the Father’s love has an influence on me and changes me. Truth1 has an effect on those around it. The purpose of truth is to conform that which it encounters to be like itself because truth stands alone. Truth is undeniably real. Something or someone that is more real than something else has pre-eminence and priority. I recall when I quit smoking. After 6 weeks or so, I forgot I quit. Why? Something more important occupied my care, thoughts and even motive. And it wasn’t a nicotine patch or Zoloft. It was the revelatory truth of the word.
Truth sets you free from what is not real. The things that are not real have not power. 1 Cor. 15:56 says, “The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.” Sin no longer has power. How has sin lost its power and strength? Eph. 2:14-18, Col. 2:11-15. Jesus nailed the penalty of all the law of Moses and self-imposed law to the cross in His flesh. God Himself in His only Son shed His blood to annul the penalty and guilt of the law even a law I have against myself! Christ’s sacrifice and blood purges one’s conscience from the knowledge of the guilt and penalty of any self-imposed law. It is as if the tree of the knowledge of good and evil did not even exist! If I cannot eat from the tree then I cannot partake of the knowledge of good and evil that will bring guilt and condemnation to my conscience. Only Christ’s work can purge my conscience from dead works and self-imposed law. Now, the Just shall live by faith!
To realize this work and His motive is the beginning to seeing the manifestation of love. Unveiled, real love creates after-thought. The Greek word for repentance means after-thought. This is the free gift of His grace. Love is a gift. You do not owe love or pay it back. Otherwise, it was out of debt and obligation.
If I do not know love then my love is based on self-imposed law and ‘what I think is love.’ That is not love, but soulishness and infatuation based on self which leads to idolatry which has not reality, true fulfillment or peace. This soulish love ‘distracts’ and brings worry or ‘anxious and distracting thoughts.’ This soulish love is not real and lasting. It brings disappointment, Rom. 5:5.
With real love I can have real assurance, comfort, rest and peace.
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