CMP Review 2024-08-18

When John Wesley wanted to describe the state of Adam before the Fall, his meditation led him to one word: love. “Love filled the whole expansion of [man’s] soul; it possessed him without a rival. Every movement of his heart was love.”

We were created to love. So when Jesus asked a lawyer, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” His answer was similar: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

But Adam fell. And so, explained Wesley, “Love itself, that ray of the Godhead, that balm of life, now became a torment.”

The lawyer knew that love was the ray of the Godhead. But he was fallen. And so to justify himself, he asked, “And who is my neighbor?”

Read or listen to Charlotte Mason’s poem as she explores the prologue to one of the greatest parables ever told. Find it here.

@artmiddlekauff