The great command is that we love God and others with the totality of our being. It is not enough to merely love with the intellect or the heart, or with intellect and heart. We must love with the WILL. It is one thing to know what to do, it is another thing to do it. We are not what we feel, or think, or wish, but what we WILL. Galatians 3:3 asks the question, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" While we admit that the unbeliever has self at the ceneter of his/her life, we must understand that the regenerate man, the church member, also struggles with the flesh. This is the curse of sin and is straight from Satan. He made self his pivot when he attempted to take heaven from its center in God and tried to center it in self. There is only one solution to our dilemma, we must crucify self (die to self) daily and allow Christ to live through us. We must constantly put to death the flesh and WILLFULLY allow the Holy Spirit to love through us. It is not difficult to know whether it is our flesh or God's Spirit who is in control.... just examine what is said, what is done, and the spirit of each. Does gentleness, forgiveness, and agape love pervade, or do we respond as an unregenerate person would? It is more than just knowing what to do, or emotionally feeling the proper way---- we must act. We must do as Jesus would do.
That's the way it is Jack!
