Lately there has been a portion of scripture that I have been seeing everywhere and maybe it’s just for me but the simplicity and timeliness of it is something that we all need to really learn and walk in, daily. In the book of Matthew we find two amazingly simple commandments from Jesus and in my opinion if these commandments were followed or at least attempted to be followed our families, churches, cites & world would be in far better shape that it currently is.
So these religious know-it-alls were always trying to slip up Jesus and they even worked together in this specific portion of scripture in Matthew when they asked him, “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” The response from Jesus is what I truly believe we all need to really zero in on. Jesus responded, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest of the Laws. The second is like it, You must love your neighbor as yourself. All the Laws and the writings of the early preachers depend on these two most important Laws.”
There’s a lot here for example did you notice how the first commandment was to Love God then love your neighbor or love others as you love yourself. You can’t truly have love for anyone else until you first love God. Oh sure, you can have a deep longing and infatuation for them and you may think that that is what love should feel like but you would be wrong. So you might rebuttal that and say, “Are you telling me that you can’t know love apart from God?” to answer that question and not beating around the proverbial bush; yes! Here’s why, in 1 John 4:8 we get the answer right from the Word of God and it says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (emphasis mine).
I believe it’s high time that we cry out and ask God to show us how to live out these two-most important commandments. If we truly loved God and others as we are instructed to think about how revolutionary that would be. What would be different in our society? If you put God and others before our own desires? I guarantee you that it would change this nation and do we ever need it.
I wanted to leave you with a portion of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Philippi. Now I am huge fan of looking up common portions of scripture in multiple translation because I truly believe that God is big enough to speak through ANYTHING. In Philippians 2:3 we see a very heart-felt plea that Paul gives the church and I believe this plea echoes through the ages and is aimed right at today’s church. The King James Version says it like this, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” Now for you Seminary Students and post-graduate readers out there God may speak to you through that and that is totally fine; however, for me it was “The Message” translation that really spoke volumes and that is what I leave you with today. It picks it up starting in Verse 1, and it reads.
“If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”
Take Care & God Bless,
-E
No comments:
Post a Comment