“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:36-40
Matthew 22:36-40
Have you ever looked at the Ten Commandments? How many times do you find "Don't" in them? Honestly, the concept that Christianity is about keeping a list of "don'ts" has driven quite a number of people away. Let's face it, if all you hear are negatives then why be part of such a group. Let me put it another way, if your supervisor only took time to give you negative feedback, how would your morale be? How would your morale be if you knew you were under the microscope and people were just waiting for you to make a mistake?
In today's passage, Jesus was asked what is the greatest, most important of the Commandments. Of all the "Don'ts" Jesus could have chosen, He chose to give a positive! He told the Inquisitor that the greatest commandment was to LOVE! First, love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Second, because of your love for God, you will be able to love others as much as you love yourself. LOVE is the greatest commandment!
Now, how good are we at loving others as much as we love ourselves? If you love someone, you will encourage, build them up, have their back, remember what it's like to be treated badly so you will do the opposite for others. Love is about POSITIVE! So, again, how good are we at loving others? How good of an example did Jesus give us?
No comments:
Post a Comment