Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.  One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘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 commandment.  And the second is like it:  ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   - Matthew 22:34-39

Yesterday we read a similar passage in Luke 10:25-28.  In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is the one who quotes the OT law (Deut. 6:5).  Matthew tells us that Jesus was being tested with a tough question.  He was asked to boil down the commands of God to a single statement.  In other words, “Tell us what it is all about Jesus.  What does faith in God really mean?”  Wouldn’t you like to hear from the ultimate authority on what life and faith are really all about?  

Jesus’ answer to this question is amazing!  His answer is so simple, and yet it is also deeply profound.  I had a theology professor who used to say, “Any idiot can make simple things sound complex, but it takes real genius to make complex things sound simple.”  This is precisely what Jesus does here!  He takes the great complex mysteries of life, the Bible, God, and faith, and distills them down to two beautifully simple and clear commands: love God and love people!

There it is. You want to know what the Christian life is all about?  It is right there in those two commands.  Jesus says that everything else “hangs on these two commands”.  

You might think of these two commands as describing the vertical relationship and the horizontal relationships that make up the Christian life.  The vertical relationship is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.  The horizontal relationship is to love your neighbor as yourself.  For those of you who are visual learners, think of these two areas as the two beams that make up a cross.

It is important for us to realize that you have to have both.  You cannot have a cross without the two beams.  If you take away the horizontal beam, you are left with a stake in the ground.  If you take away the vertical beam, the horizontal beam falls to the ground.  You cannot love God if you ignore your neighbor and when you love your neighbor you also love God.  This may sound obvious or simplistic, but too many Christians overemphasize one to the neglect of the other.  The wisdom of Jesus shows us that you simply cannot separate the two because they are really not two different commands, but one.

If anyone says,  “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  – 1 John 4:20

All of your studying, all of your giving, all of your serving, all of your attending, all of your worshipping, all of your teaching, all of your meeting, all of your praying, all of your fasting, all of your reading, all of your sharing, all of your witnessing, all of your writing, all of your calling, all of your walking, talking, eating, breathing, living, and dying should be done in love for God and in love for others!

Take a few moments to do a little self-assessment in these two areas; love for God and love for others.

• Are you harboring any bitterness or resentment toward God or another person?
• Are you spending time with God in His Word and in prayer?
• Are you taking time to listen and extend kindness to others in your life?

Oh Lord, teach us to love you with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and grant us your grace to love others as ourselves.  Keep us from distractions and divisions.  Keep our hearts focused on these two simple commands.  – Amen.

Pastor Jeff Frazier