As we read the Gospels, we come across passages where Jesus says the same thing, but not in exactly the same context. It seems to me that in those occasions we are coming across sayings, proverbs, that were favorites of Jesus. Like His parables, they are statements easy to remember, concise and maybe – on the surface – obvious but, inside, they are full of meaning because they reveal an important Kingdom Truth.

One of those sayings has to do with recognizing the times we are living in.

My short story “ACC was right” appears this month in Antipodean SF, the Australian speculative fiction web magazine. (If you like Quantum Mechanics and know what the Copenhagen Interpretation is, this one’s for you.)

“Worldly wisdom is of the opinion that love is a relationship between persons; Christianity teaches that love is a relationship between: a person—God—a person, that is, that God is the middle term.” (Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love.)

2 Corinthians 3:6 For the letter kills, but the Spirit quickens. Several times in his letters, Paul the Apostle says that the Law brings death. In particular, much of his letter to the Romans is devoted to trying to get us to understand why this is so. I am seeing those passages in a new light as I walk through Kierkegaard’s Works of Love.

In the Gospel of Matthew, in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says: Think not that I am come to make void the law or the prophets; I am not come to make void, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). In the same sense, Love is the fulfilling of the Law.

In Chapter 13 of the letter to the Romans, Paul starts by talking about our duty to abide by the rules of our society. (The same as Jesus’ principle of ‘render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’.) In his list of examples, all the duties are stated as things or actions we owe; and therefore, he concludes with the admonition: Don’t live in debt. Then, as if that thought sparked a connection he hadn’t considered before, he pivots: Romans 13:8 Owe no one anything, unless to love one another: for he that loves another has fulfilled the law.