WHEN LOVE LEAVES THE HEART

For this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Love -2 Thessalonians 2:11, 12

Christ separated truth from error and doubt, tradition, and superstition-the mass of rubbish which humans had piled around it. Tearing away the framework of error which obscured the brightness of truth, He enthroned the divine precepts in companionship with the royalty of eternal, uncorrupted truth bearing the sanction of God, the Source of all truth.

Had the Jewish nation received the Teacher sent from God, they would have given up the traditions and maxims handed down from rabbi to rabbi, and accumulating from age to age as other nonessential theories were invented. But instead of advancing from light to greater light, they took the wrong way. By sinful indulgence they expelled from the heart the love of God, the love of the principles of His holy law. The love of the world filled their hearts, prompting them to disobey. If they had hidden the law of God in their hearts, if they had given due respect to the sacred principles of this law, it would have exerted a corrective influence on the entire life, and would have remodeled their selfish, avaricious dispositions after the character of God.

Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, came to our world to sweep away the speculative opinions formulated by human beings. His work was an important one; for He sought to present truth in contrast to many false theories so destructive to the salvation of all who entertained them. He came not to abrogate the law, but to be in His life a correct expositor of the character of God as revealed in the law. To remove the confusion of opinions existing everywhere concerning the meaning of the law, Christ Himself lived the law in its purity. Notwithstanding the fact that the prince of darkness unceasingly followed Christ, accusing Him and contending with Him, Christ vindicated the law of God. In His life He demonstrated that He is the Word and the Wisdom of God....

Christ came not only to vindicate the law before the inhabitants of this world, but by His life to settle forever the immutability of God's law.-Manuscript 125, 1901.

Further Reflection: If sinful indulgence removes the love of God from our hearts, what can you to do keep the love of God in your heart?