“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with
all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The
second most important commandment is this: ‘Love your neighbor as you love
yourself.’ On these two hang all the law and all the prophets.”
A minister was trying to teach about all
the things money can’t buy. “Money can’t buy happiness, it can’t buy
laughter and it can’t buy love” he told the congregation.
He said, “What would you do if I offered you $1,000 not to love your mother and father?” A hush fell over the congregation. Finally a small voice near the front piped up “How much would you give me not to love my big sister?”
He said, “What would you do if I offered you $1,000 not to love your mother and father?” A hush fell over the congregation. Finally a small voice near the front piped up “How much would you give me not to love my big sister?”
People were always trying to trip Jesus up
with words – the Pharisees who argued long and often about interpretation of
the law. This time it is a scribe who tries. “What is the greatest commandment?”
he asks.
Jesus answers first with the Sh’ma, the
Jewish prayer inscribed about every doorway in every household. “Hear O Israel,
the Lord your God, the Lord is One.” Nothing they can get at there. Then he
quotes their own law to them: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
And he goes on… “The second is like the
first. Love your neighbour the same way you love yourself. On these two hang
All the law and All the prophets.”
In biblical research, there’s a sort of
genre titled “Hard sayings of Jesus.” I don’t know is this one is included, but
it seems to me that to do this is probably one of the hardest sayings, and
should be included.
The expert in the law was trying to trap Jesus. Instead of
giving them a loophole that allowed them to obey one commandment and ignore any
of the others, Jesus gave them a commandment that encompassed all of the
commandments, all 613 laws contained in the scriptures, in two simple
sentences: “Love God” and “Love your Neighbor.” Five words!
You see how it works? Think about it. If you truly love God, then you truly love your neighbour. If you truly love your neighbour, you won’t murder, you won’t steal, won’t take your neighbour's spouse, or gossip against your neighbour.
With this simple answer to the Pharisee’s question, Jesus did not gratify their desire to prove themselves to be scholars. He didn’t even give them any wiggle room so that they might keep one commandment, while ignoring another. He didn’t let them off the hook, he actually put them firmly and squarely *on* the hook. Instead of telling them to keep all the 613 laws, Jesus has now condensed it to two simple commands. You could also say he boiled it down to just one word. LOVE. That is what God expects of us. That’s what we are supposed to be doing.
Sometimes people say, “You know, that made me uncomfortable this morning.” Well, if anybody is uncomfortable or gets their toes figuratively stepped on, blame it on the Holy Spirit, and then be thankful. If the Spirit of God is dealing with you on this level, then hear what the Spirit is saying and act on it. That is a significant part of the process of becoming the person that God has called you and created you to be.
Problem is, we don’t want to be uncomfortable, we don’t want to do the hard work of being a Christian. But there’s a but, here, of course. The Word does make us uncomfortable sometimes, and if we are going to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength – and love our neighbours the same way then uncomfortable is part of the process.
You see how it works? Think about it. If you truly love God, then you truly love your neighbour. If you truly love your neighbour, you won’t murder, you won’t steal, won’t take your neighbour's spouse, or gossip against your neighbour.
With this simple answer to the Pharisee’s question, Jesus did not gratify their desire to prove themselves to be scholars. He didn’t even give them any wiggle room so that they might keep one commandment, while ignoring another. He didn’t let them off the hook, he actually put them firmly and squarely *on* the hook. Instead of telling them to keep all the 613 laws, Jesus has now condensed it to two simple commands. You could also say he boiled it down to just one word. LOVE. That is what God expects of us. That’s what we are supposed to be doing.
Sometimes people say, “You know, that made me uncomfortable this morning.” Well, if anybody is uncomfortable or gets their toes figuratively stepped on, blame it on the Holy Spirit, and then be thankful. If the Spirit of God is dealing with you on this level, then hear what the Spirit is saying and act on it. That is a significant part of the process of becoming the person that God has called you and created you to be.
Problem is, we don’t want to be uncomfortable, we don’t want to do the hard work of being a Christian. But there’s a but, here, of course. The Word does make us uncomfortable sometimes, and if we are going to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength – and love our neighbours the same way then uncomfortable is part of the process.
Jesus talks about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind
and strength. That means everything you are has to be focused on finding the
spots which need work, and working on them. Coming to church on Sunday morning
is one part of that; Bible or book study is one part of it; reading and growing
our minds is one part of it; expanding our spirits is part of it, broadening
our hearts is part of it.
Spiritual growth is not easy. But this is about spiritual growth – intentional learning, intentional work. It is not automatic. If it was there would be a lot more spiritually mature people in the church. Growth and maturity must happen on purpose. It happens as we remain open to God’s Spirit at work in our lives. Being a disciple of Jesus is hard work – and it is work. It calls us to be more than what we are now – to be constantly evaluating who we are and how we are. I like to think of it as building up our faith muscles, doing our spiritual exercise.
Spiritual growth is not easy. But this is about spiritual growth – intentional learning, intentional work. It is not automatic. If it was there would be a lot more spiritually mature people in the church. Growth and maturity must happen on purpose. It happens as we remain open to God’s Spirit at work in our lives. Being a disciple of Jesus is hard work – and it is work. It calls us to be more than what we are now – to be constantly evaluating who we are and how we are. I like to think of it as building up our faith muscles, doing our spiritual exercise.
Everything grows from that. So when Paul speaks about all of
us being part of one body, and how we relate to the other parts of the body, he’s
really talking about doing our spiritual exercise, building up love in our
hearts, souls, and minds, and then living that out with others around us. He’s
telling us to expand our minds, to expand our ways of being, to be open to the
moving of the Spirit in our lives. We cannot live a complete spiritual life
without all the parts of the body – and this is the most telling, I think –
that the one that usually gets the least respect should be given the greatest
respect, because even those parts of the body which might be considered
insignificant are important.
This spiritual development then expands us even further –
into the world of creation. If we do not love ourselves – meaning spiritual
maturity, not egocentric love – we can’t love our neighbours, and if we can’t
love our neighbours then by extension we can’t love anything touched by God
either. Everything is inter-related, everything is connected.
The goal is that we work to follow the example Jesus gave us, and to recognise that Jesus gave us one law – love – and on that hangs the sum of all of the law, and all of the prophets. There is only the one law, and that is the law of love. Everything else comes after that. May it be so.
Sources: 1. "Spiritual Exercise", Fran Ota
2. "The Greatest Commandment" Rev. Steve Greene, Church of the Nazarene.
The goal is that we work to follow the example Jesus gave us, and to recognise that Jesus gave us one law – love – and on that hangs the sum of all of the law, and all of the prophets. There is only the one law, and that is the law of love. Everything else comes after that. May it be so.
Sources: 1. "Spiritual Exercise", Fran Ota
2. "The Greatest Commandment" Rev. Steve Greene, Church of the Nazarene.
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