So its not some arbitrary love it is keeping God's commandments the way God gave them
1 John 5:2-3.
There's no such thing as arbitrary agape-and
that love is what the commandments are based on to begin with.
The problem with the Pharisees as Jesus taught is they replaced God's commandments, again quoting from the Ten Commandment, condemning them for replacing God's law with their own man-made laws and traditions (what felt right)
"what felt right" was not based on love, but on the opposite, on pride and selfishness.
quoting from the Ten Commandments and showing the intent behind the commandments, not to even have thoughts that lead to breaking them because that's where sin starts in the heart.
Mat 5:19-30
Yes, in Matt 5 Jesus was quoting the ten commandments and showing us the true way to obey them; it was
those commandments that the Pharisess, themselves, were directly breaking on the inside while looking clean on the outside (Matt 23). The only way to authentically obey those comandments is by the Spirit, through Christ, apart from whom we can do nothing. The only way good fruit is produced, IOW, is by virtue of connection to the Vine.
That's the starting point of the new covenant-and the main difference between the old and the new. And that's why Paul is excited at the end of Rom 7,
"Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
Christ, union with Him, is the only way to overcome the deeds of the flesh that condemn and kill us, with the only one who can deliver us from the slavery of sin
unto obedience and righteousness: God, alone justifes, not
me alone, by my own efforts. God, alone, can produce in me the love that is characteristic of Himself and His family-and that fulfills the law:
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people." Jer 31:33
So Paul was speaking of a new way of observing the moral law, the ten commandments, and
not just about circumcision (post #102). This is highlighted in Rom 7 where he identifies the ten commandments and then emphasizes a whole new way of observing them-and that's what the new righteousness spoken of in Phil 3:9 and Rom 3, 5, 6, and 8, for example, is all about:
"But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet." Rom 7:6-7
I'm just saying we must be on gaurd to not return to the Letter, which is very easy to do. The new covenant is about the heart-about
change in it, in us, and a change that's meant to take root and grow. Meanwhile we also don't want to make the mistake of thinking, as many novel theologies do, that the new covenant represents some sort of
reprieve from the obligation for man to be law-abiding, which it does
NOT, as you know. It's actually the only true means of
becoming law-abiding, with man now walking by the Spirit, under grace, now connected to the life-giving Vine in a union bound by love.
