Sunday Letter: All good is of God
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All good is of God. ... If a man love his brother, whom he hath seen, the love of God, whom he hath not seen, is not very far off. . . . God be praised by those who know religion to be the truth of humanity, — its own truth that sets it free — not binds and lops and mutilates it !
A few brief comments in thought-order:
To put another way: Religion—Christianity—does not bind and lop and mutilate the truth—the reality—of humanity. The truth of Christianity—of Scripture—is what sets humanity free from bondage to itself, which it calls sin. Sin is dependence on things other than the God revealed and recorded in Scripture, explicated in the Fathers—in short, Religion—being the truth of humanity.
The 1662 BCP Collect for this Sunday:
O Lord, from whom all good things do come: Grant to us thy humble servants, that by thy holy inspiration we may think those things that are good, and by thy merciful guiding may perform the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Good comes from the father so comprehensively, and our possession of self is so comprehensive that we must rely on the inspiration of God to think those things that are good.
Thinking good things is not enough: we are guided to do those things that are good too.
What are the good things? How do we love our brother, and thereby have a glimpse of God’s love for us? The 1662 BCP Epistle Reading for today is James 1:22–27:
If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)
Think the good things of your brother, neighbour, associate, friend. Depend upon the source of good to do good.
The famous quote by St Irenaeus “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” if true, what does it mean to be fully alive?
“If a man love his brother, whom he hath seen, the love of God, whom he hath not seen, is not very far off”
{ιμκ☩}
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