The Greatest Commandment
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.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Are you like me? Do you tend to over-complicate some things in life? I do it with Christianity all the time, and quite honestly I'm to the point of getting frustrated with myself every time I notice it. Jesus took all the commandments that God gave us and broke it down in these couple of verses; to love God above all things and above all people, and then to love people the same way we love ourselves.
Easy.., right? Not for me, but it definitely isn't complicated. It really doesn't come down to a bunch of legalistic things I have to do accompanied by the longer list of things I should not do. It is simply to Love God, and love people. I want to skip over loving God, and move directly into loving people. Not because I think loving God doesn't warrant talking about, but because God has recently shown me that I lack tremendously in how I love other people.
For anyone who knows me, this isn't going to come as much of a surprise, but I'm pretty much a loaner; an introvert. I'm not one for being in crowds of people and I don't do well with chit chat. I'm not the guy that people call when they want to go out and have fun, but I am the guy that someone can call if they need to run a question by, or if they need help with something that I might be handy at. This is just how I'm wired, and to be perfectly honest with you, that is exactly how I like things.
But being that I am a christian, is living that lifestyle of a recluse OK? Now, most people who aren't believers would say, "yes! please stay to yourself - you freak!", but those people really don't hold the opinion that I should be basing my answer on.
A few months ago, our church sponsored a "get to know your neighbor party", and of all neighborhoods for my pastor to choose to hold the outreach, he chose our neighborhood. My initial response to him was, 'man, the only way you are going to get adults out the front door is if you bring the beer truck!' I bet he was real encouraged after that. Later that week or the following week, I met with him over a sweet tea, and he suggested that I just start walking around the neighborhood and pray to God about the different things that I saw. I started doing just that; I would pray for the families that may have been outside as I was walking, and for those who needed repairs on their houses or houses painted, etc. But it wasn't long before God really started directing my prayer and revealing my own heart. One night, after dark, I took a walk out the front door and before I made it to the top of the hill, I got real honest with God. I said, 'God, if anything is going to take place in this neighborhood, you are going to have be the one that gets it done, because quite honestly I don't really care about them.' As the words came out of my mouth, I realized exactly what God had just revealed to me.
If I don't care about the people that Jesus came and died for, then how in the world can I say that I love God. He showed me that I was selfish, for the most part. In a nutshell, I cared enough about myself to accept Christ and His sacrifice, but don't care enough about the people around me to be looking for ways to share Him with them.
If you were to be completely honest with yourself - if it were just you and your reflection - how are you doing with loving others? Do you love them as much as you love yourself, or are you more concerned with your own life and the circumstances taking place within your little bubble?
What is pretty awesome though is that He is a patient God. He is willing to give the time needed for us to grow. I have a long, long way to go in order to get rid of my cynical outlook on life and people, but every day that I am taking in breath is a day that I can lean on God to change that outlook.
