+JMJ+
Come Holy Spirit....
The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.(NIV)
Matthew 10:
34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; (NIV)
Greetings fellow Scripture students!
The above biblical verses are both simple and confounding at the same time for many people.
The Greatest Commandment feels easy to most people. Love the Lord, easy enough, right? People say it all of the time. Even people who don't outwardly appear to be Christians will say they love God or Jesus, and the probably do. But for many people, it is mostly lip service. Or at the very least, it isn't unconditional, or it has limits. How many live it the way Scripture tells us to? (With all our soul and all our mind? And above and beyond our love of anyone or anything else?)
A friend of mine once commented, after he and his wife had a child, that when he saw his new child smile for the first time, that he discovered the meaning of life, to put a smile on his son's face. While taking care of one's children is obviously expected of us, what about putting a smile on God's face? Should that be the meaning of life? According to Scripture, the answer is YES.
As Rick Warren so astutely concludes in his bestselling book The Purpose Drive Life, we are created specifically to serve the Lord. Not ourselves, and not our friends and family to the same extent as we are to serve and thereby love the Lord.
Truly loving the Lord with "all of our soul and all of our mind" (emphasis mine) means putting how God and Jesus Christ feel above all else, without any exception. If we truly love Him, shouldn't that come naturally?
How many of you would sacrifice something for your children? Or your spouse? Or maybe a sibling? How many of your are careful what you say or do to that person? How many would even go so far as to risk your life for one of them? For those who said they would, why would you? Because you love them! And it makes you happy to see them happy.
But, as we learn via Scripture, we are to love the Lord even more than that! Yes, MORE.
If we truly love the Lord with all of our mind and soul, then we would want to do things on a daily basis that make Him happy, and we would avoid doing things that would make Him unhappy. That is true love, and that is unconditional love. The same unconditional love that many people are willing to give their children, spouses, family, or even themselves, we are to give to God and Jesus, but even moreso. Even if that causes divisions with other people, for God is to come first in our lives, without any exception.
And when you love someone with all of your mind and soul, that person automatically takes top priority in your life. Just like a spouse or children suddenly become the center of someone's attention, out of love, God is to receive even more priority in our daily lives. And if you are sincere, then that love is manifested via action.
Lip service alone only goes so far.
Lip service alone only goes so far.
If you told your child, spouse, etc. that you loved them, yet you neglected them, or only do the bare minimum for them, then how much do you truly love them? Not very much, I'd say. God and Jesus ask for more than "not very much."
And why do they deserve so much love? Well, for starters, God created us. You would not be alive, because humans would not even exist, except for God. You are only here because of God. Second, you would not receive everlasting life (in Heaven) if God did not sacrifice His only child, His only son, so that, if we believe in Him, we can have our (many) sins forgiven. He not only sacrificed His only son, but Jesus submitted Himself to a torturous death, both for no other reason than God and Jesus love us that much. God and Jesus showed their unconditional love for us by Christ's passion and death. We didn't deserve it, we certainly never earned it, but they gave it to us, anyway. And they forgive us, when we ask, whenever we fall short of loving Them they way we should, and act in ways contrary to that love.
Think of this: If a loved one pushed you out of the way of an oncoming train, and they died as a result, instead of you, how much gratitude would you feel for that person? How much more love would you feel for that person than you did even before? Well, Jesus Christ pushed you out of way of the train of sin and eternal damnation and died in your place. Why is it so hard to feel the same appreciation for what He did than we would show had it been someone else?
Everything you do should put a smile on their divine faces, for no other reason than the fact that you truly love them, for that is the true meaning of life. That is the Greatest Commandment.
God bless you all, and thank you, Lord. I do indeed love You. Forgive me when I don't show it with my actions.
Reading Eric’s post about lip service made me think about a couple examples in my life. I have an ex-brother in law and a father in law that take their religion in two different ways. My Brother in Law really is the kind of guy that screams from the top of a mountain how much he loves Jesus, and condemns everyone else from doing the same. However he does not act in a Christian way. His actions do not support his efforts and sometimes I worry that he is misrepresenting us. In a discussion he and I had, he told me that King James was the one that wrote the bible….. Absurd!!!! And these are the guys that have no problem professing, and as some miss-interpret the bible, they miss-interpret the followers. This is why you must act appropriately, and why we need to teach and inform others about the right hermeneutics of Christianity.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand you have my father in law. He will profess, but does not go to church, does not wave a banner in the sky as my brother in law would. But he acts accordingly. Charity, love, kindness, forgiveness (this one is a bit hard), and all the virtues. He is a good representation, but it is only seen and not heard.
Thanks for providing your examples, Monk!
ReplyDeleteThe way some people almost worship the King James Bible I am not surprised some think he also wrote it, lol. He wasn't even the first translator, he was about 1300 years too late for that.
I have been inspired to blog about acting like a Christian and hypocrisy, both perceived and real, in a future blog, so I will tough on that more, then.
But I think the right situation in your two examples is in the middle. Act like a Christian, and when someone asks for the source of your action, joy, faith, believe, etc do not hesitate to tell them God, Jesus Christ and/or the Holy Spirit. Never take credit for anything, but give all glory to the Lord. And because you love Him, do everything that He asks, including worshiping Him in His house whenever you can.
You are right, he was not even the first translator, but it his version is thought of highly. You are right on all the aspects given above. I read a good book called UNchristian. Despite the name it is exactly opposite of what you may think. It takes a look at how christianity is percieved and thought of and then talks about how to change that.
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