Love – Word for the Soul

A Fragrance of Loving Service

May 28, 2024May 21, 2024 Loring Schultz

“While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head.” Matthew 26:7 NLT

The world’s most expensive perfume is ‘Passant Guardant’ by Clive Christian at $7,600 per ml or $228,000 a bottle (30ml). To be a recipient of such a gift would be an honor of the highest regard. To be the giver of such an expensive gift would be symbolic of the love towards the one receiving it. The sacrifice made in presenting the gift is on display whether intended or not. The giver cares not about the exposure, but only about presenting a gift of love in the most exquisite means possible.

Jesus received such a gift just a few days before His crucifixion. Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazurus, presented this fragrance of loving service by pouring it over His head. The pouring of oil over the head in the Old Testament is referred to as anointing oil. It was poured over the head of the high priest and his descendants to mark them as holy and set apart unto the Lord. Mary, in this case, anointed Jesus as an act of worship. She was aware who Jesus was, the Messiah. It is also possible she believed in Jesus’ words when He spoke of His impending death, even more than His disciples who seemed to struggle with it. Jesus speaks to Mary’s actions, “She has poured this perfume on me to prepare my body for burial.” (Mt.26:12 nlt)

The perfume or oil Mary poured on Jesus came from Northen India and was made of pure nard. The cost is noted as 300 denarii or about a year’s wages. (Mk.14:5) Today’s value would be about $40,000-$50,000. It was not only a fragrance of loving service, but a loving sacrifice. But Jesus’ disciples complained this act was wasteful and could have been used more wisely. “But Jesus, aware of this, replied, ‘Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me?’” (Mt.26:10 nlt) Charles R. Erdman writes, “No gift to him can be too great if made in grateful love, an act may be morally beautiful even though not practically useful.” (1)

Jesus is pleased with our gifts of service to Him whatever the cost. We can never give too little or too much according to our ability to give. Our motives will determine the value of the gift and our Lord will recognize its true value; may it always be a fragrance of loving service.

Read: Matthew 26:6-13 NLT – Jesus Anointed at Bethany – Meanwhile, – Bible Gateway

(1) Erdman, Charles R. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983.

Devotionals

Love Covers Them All

February 26, 2024February 22, 2024 Loring Schultz

“On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:40 ESV

You may have heard of the ‘Great Commandment.’ You may even be able to quote it. But is it one commandment or two commandments? Jesus, in concluding His answer to the question ‘which is the great commandment in the Law,’ said “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Mt. 22:40 ESV) Sounds like it is two, but they have a common denominator, ‘love.’

A lawyer of the Pharisees, who was an expert in Mosaic Law, asked Jesus a question as so many others to trap Him in His words. The lawyer asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Mt. 22:36 ESV) The Old Testament Law had the Ten Commandments included in the five books of the Law known as the Torah which also contained additional laws given to Moses for God’s people Israel. At the time Jesus was on the earth in the first century, there were additional laws added to the total of 613 put in place by Rabbis and scholars over the years. Even though most of those were man-made traditions for the Jewish rulers to maintain their positions, Jesus narrowed them all down to two.

In answering the lawyer’s question Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt. 22:37-39 ESV) Jesus carefully put the two-part commandment in divine order. The great and ‘first’ commandment is to love God with all your heart, signifying your whole self, body, soul, and mind. Then likewise, you are to love your neighbor as yourself, not advocating self-love, but in concert with the ‘golden rule’ to love others as you would want them to love you.

Our moral duty as human beings on the earth are to love God and to love our neighbor. Jesus makes is so simple for us to understand and so easy to do if we only take the effort to do so. No need to obey 613 commandments. Two simple commands; love God, love your neighbor. If we truly love God, we will be obedient to all moral conduct. Loving our neighbor, even those who block your driveway, will come naturally as God loves them. This two-part great command is all that is needed, for if obeyed all other laws and commands will be follow suit for ‘Love Covers Them All!’

Read: Matthew 22:34-40 ESV – The Great Commandment – But when the – Bible Gateway

Devotionals

Love, Bless, Do Good, and Pray for those who Hate You!

February 15, 2024February 14, 2024 Loring Schultz

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’ ‘But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.’” Matthew 5:43-44 NKJV

I have heard people say, ‘I like everybody.’ Others have commented, ‘There isn’t a person he or she hasn’t met they do not like.’ Not to be overly critical, but I find that hard to believe. There are a lot of people I don’t like. Sounds unchristian, I know. But think about it. Do you like everyone you know or have ever met? A pastor friend of mine said to me a few years back as I was pursuing a pastorate ministry, you don’t need to like everyone in your congregation, you need to love them. I admit it was a comforting thought, but then realized I needed to love them. That is hard enough, but what about those you despise and hate you, how do you love them?

In the most famous sermon of all time, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” (Mt. 5:43 NKJV) Loving your neighbor is certainly found in the pages of the Old Testament of which those in His hearing would have recognized. But ‘hate your enemy’ is not in scripture but was from hearing the scribes and Pharisees interpretation on how to apply the command of ‘love your neighbor.’ Obviously, they taught that if you didn’t like someone and they were indeed your enemy, it was permitted to hate them.

Jesus, as he always did, corrected their ill-advised thinking. He knew what they had heard and were taught was the growing sentiment of how to treat people and said to them, ‘But I say to you.’ He was telling them to forget what they heard from their teachers and listen to Him. Those who follow Jesus, live by a whole set of different rules, His rules. We are to love our enemies, bless those who ridicule and mock us, be nice to those who mistreat us, and pray for those who take advantage of us, and persecute us. Again, how are we to do this, love those who hate us? On our own this is impossible, but with Christ’s love living in us through the Holy Spirit, we are assured to love our enemies, even those we don’t like.

Read: Matthew 5:43-48 NKJV – Love Your Enemies – “You have heard – Bible Gateway

Devotionals

A Better Way

January 15, 2024January 13, 2024 Loring Schultz

“But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39 ESV

The Old Testament law provided for equal justice in civil cases by ensuring that the punishment fit the offense. Jesus affirmed this in the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” (Mt. 5:38 ESV) The problem for so many in Jesus’s day was that the premise of the law was also being used for personal disputes. Personal retaliation was justified by misinterpreting the true nature of the law. Those seeking personal revenge would justify “an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth.” It is still somewhat common today by the phrase, “don’t get mad, get even.” But Jesus has a better way.

I am sure Jesus’s proposals for His better way were met with some resistance on the mountain that day. They certainly are met today with push back preserving our rights. We have the right to defend ourselves (yes we do), we have the right to protect what is ours (yes we do), we have the right to not be forced into any service against our will (agreed), and we have the right to keep what is ours. But by ensuing personal revenge to protect our personal rights we destroy any opportunity we had to show the mercy and the love of God. Christians are to follow Jesus’s example, “The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.” (Is. 50:5-6 ESV)

It is not always easy to pursue the better way, especially in unprovoked, unjust circumstances. But our Lord set the example and He will help us through it. Dr. Benjamin Mays speaking of the unjust sufferings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said the following, “If any man knew the meaning of suffering, King knew…….and yet this man had no bitterness in his heart, no rancour in his soul, no revenge in his mind; and he went up and down the length and breadth of this world preaching non-violence and the redemptive power of love.” (1) Yes, there is ‘a better way.’

Coretta Scott King, My life with Martin Luther King Jr (Hodder & Stoughton, 1970), pp.365-369.