Partial Notes
III. Jesus teaches us why we should keep His commandments; it is so that OUR joy may be full.
Jesus is a God-man, both divine and incarnate. As God, Jesus’ joy is perfect. Nothing can be added nor subtracted to His joy except by condescension in His Love for us.
- There are two types of love, imperfect and perfect.
Imperfect love, fear of consequence.
Perfect love fear of not loving God as we should. WE love God for who He is regardless of our circumstances.
Paul experienced this perfect love
Rom 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For thy sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It comes as no surprise to the Lord, our weaknesses in loving Him. Apart from Him we can do nothing as an accurate assessment of our condition. Jn 15:5cf
Our imperfect love is often a motivator for perfect love. By following the Way, we see that He is Truth, is faithful, is dependable, and the other attributes appropriate to Him which can lead a soul to loving Him for who He is. Proverbs greatly enhances the progression of the love of God.
- Proverbs is an excellent expansion on the last discourses of both Moses and Jesus. Proverbs gives concrete examples of the type of result/crop one can expect from keeping or not the commandments. Much like a garden catalogue.
- Wisdom Literature, books
The Wisdom literature of the Old Testament is an eclectic collection of proverbs, moral lessons, riddles, warnings, extended meditations, and philosophical inquiry and debate. It also includes hymns and even love poetry in the Song of Songs. The human authors of the Bible took an interest in more than just religious subjects, as anyone who reads the Bible can attest. The Wisdom literature is a prime example of that broad outlook.
The reason for this length and breadth of interest is that wisdom comes to us in many forms. There is, of course, the wisdom that we learn from God himself through revelation. There is also wisdom to be gained from human experience and reflection. For example, the question “What is it to be just?” or “What does the just man do?” can be answered from a religious perspective or from a more secular bent. The answers may be different, but they are not contradictory.
The Wisdom literature exposes us to both types of reflection, especially in the books of Proverbs and Sirach.[1]
For at least a century and a half, the Wisdom books of the Bible have perplexed biblical scholars. In their search for the one idea that unites the whole Bible, some suggested “covenant,” others “law and grace”—but whichever one they chose, the Wisdom books did not fit. Then, in the early 1960s, some scholars suggested that the Wisdom Literature of the Bible had its own unique voice and theology.
The Wisdom books in the Bible, in their probable order of writing, are Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes (also called Qohelet), Ben Sira (also called Sirach or Ecclesiasticus), and the Wisdom of Solomon. The first three are included in Jewish and Protestant Bibles. The Septuagint and the Bibles of the Eastern Churches and the Roman Catholic Church include all five books.
These books were probably written by sages, what we might call “the Israelite intelligentsia.” Scholars debate whether there was a group of sages, as distinct from (for instance) prophets or priests, or a general intellectual movement among the Israelite elite but no distinct group. The sages also served as diplomats, palace bureaucrats, counselors, advisors to the king, educators, and scientists. The sages wrote and edited the Wisdom books over the course of almost a thousand years.[2]
[1] https://www.simplycatholic.com/bible-101-a-brief-introduction-to-wisdom-literature/ accessed September 2, 2023
[2] https://www.bibleodyssey.org/passages/related-articles/what-is-wisdom-literature/ accessed September 2, 2023