As a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, or worker, have you been disobedient, unfaithful, or lazy? You have not loved me. Have you been hot-tempered, rude or quarrelsome? You have not loved me. Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? You have not loved me. Have you stolen, been negligent, wasted anything, or done any harm? You have my commandments, and you have not kept them. You are not one who loves me.
Sermon
We look at our world everyday and see the effects of sin. We see people struggling, suffering, and dying. And we think that if only we could get society to recognize how good God’s law is. How it lays down tried and true prescriptions for good living. If only people would do these things, how much better the better the world would be.
Christ came and died for us who had no spiritual identity, who had no assurance of who we were and what we were to do. Through His blood, he brings us near to God. Through His Cross we have been reconciled to God. “Through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father.” (Eph 2:17) In our baptisms, we have been called out of our former lives, we have been given new identities. Who we are and what we do has been drastically changed. And through the Word of God, read and heard at home and in worship, and the Body and Blood of Christ that we partake of, we continue to be shaped in that identity.