Psalm 119:160 AMPC
The sum of Your word is truth [the total of the full meaning of all Your individual precepts]; and every one of Your righteous decrees endures forever.
It's lovely to be given a box of chocolates, isn't it (nearest & dearest take note)?
But there are always the ones that are not quite as nice as others! They're best kept to "share" with!
God's Word can be treated like that, if I'm not careful! I can pick out the bits that are comforting and leave out the difficult.
Yet Jesus said He came not to abolish, but to fulfill the Law's requirements.
Completing God’s Law
17-18 “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures—either God’s Law or the Prophets. I’m not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God’s Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God’s Law will be alive and working.
19-20 “Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honour in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.
Wow! That's an awesome thought. Jesus came to complete what we never can - not just "some" of the Word, but the "sum" of it.
I'd much rather "cherry-pick" the easy bits of the Bible, but it's not an option.
So what is the "sum" of God's Word - if you take all the Law and the Prophets, what is the totality thereof?
Matthew 22:35-40 AMPC
And one of their number, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him. Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light-which are heavy?] And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as [you do] yourself. These two commandments sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets.
There you have it, straight from The Master's mouth - love God first, then your neighbour in the same way you love yourself.
It's about "love giving" not "law keeping"!
That adds up!
Matthew 7:12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets
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