Prime Directives

 

Mark 12:28-34, CEB - One of the legal experts heard their dispute and saw how well Jesus answered them. He came over and asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

Jesus replied, “The most important one is Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord,  and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, with all your mind, and with all your strength.  The second is this, You will love your neighbor as yourself.  No other commandment is greater than these.”

The legal expert said to him, “Well said, Teacher. You have truthfully said that God is one and there is no other besides him.  And to love God with all of the heart, a full understanding, and all of one’s strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself is much more important than all kinds of entirely burned offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered with wisdom, he said to him, “You aren’t far from God’s kingdom.” After that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

 

This is the last question posed to Jesus by the religious leaders and experts in the temple and Mark uses it to highlight Jesus’s most important teaching.  More accurately, it is a summary of all His teaching.  Another noteworthy aspect of this exchange is that it is a positive conversation between Jesus and the legal expert, which is rare in all the gospels.  In Mark it is the only positive exchange. 

To the question of what is the most important of all the commandments, Jesus combines quotes from Deuteronomy and Leviticus to arrive at what I have often summarized as “love God and love people.”  However, when we’re looking at the specific text, it’s important to note some unique details to Mark.  First, Jesus begins His answer by quoting the Shema (“Israel, listen! Our God is the one Lord”).  Jews since the second century BC have quoted this confession of faith twice daily.  It grounds Jesus answer in the everyday life of a person of faith and links what will be the Christian faith to the Hebrew faith of old.  It also affirms that both the Hebrew faith and the Christian faith are monotheistic.  There are times when the Christian faith is accused of being polytheistic (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  Jesus’s quote of the Shema refutes that accusation. 

Another important detail concerning Jesus’s quote of the Torah is that Jesus adds “mind” to the list in Deuteronomy of things with which we are to love God.  It brings to mind the 20^th century Paul Tillich’s definition of theology (loving God with the mind”).  The faith that Jesus invites us to is not one that requires us to leave our brain at the door.  This idea is strengthened by the fact that this theological discussion that Jesus is having with the legal expert ends with Jesus proclaiming, “you are not far from the kingdom of God.” 

The core of the Judaic (and Christian) faith, according to Jesus is three loves – love of God, love of people, and love of self.  Love of self is assumed in Jesus’s statement, but it is still important.  Where love of self is lacking, love of others becomes strained, if not impossible.  Both love of self and others though, comes after love of God, which is our prime directive.   

Love God and love people is simple, but far from simplistic or easy.  We can do a thousand beneficial things without love and miss the point.  This is the “not far” of Jesus’s final statement to his questioner.  It’s not enough to know the centrality of love in following Jesus.  Love is a verb.  As such, one cannot possess the love Jesus speaks of, only practice it.  We love God and people by the many things we do and refrain from doing each day.  As soon as we stop actively practicing love, we have strayed from the Kingdom. 

 

Question:  Thinking about your actions over the last few days, how have you actively loved God, self, and others?

 

Prayer:    Lord, because You love us, we can love ourselves, return our love to you,  and extend that love to others.  Give us eyes to see the specific opportunities we have to actively love today. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:   Pray for people experiencing chronic pain today.

 

Song:  Luv is a Verb – DC Talk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfFuhrdGKM

Love God. Love People.

 

Love God. Love People.

 

Matthew 22:34-40, The Message - When the Pharisees heard how he had bested the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. One of their religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him up: “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?”

Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

 

Anyone who knows me knows that this passage is my “big deal” passage.  It is Jesus’s restatement of the sum total of all the Old Testament laws.  It simplifies the Ten Commandments into two (all ten have to do with either our relationship with God or our relationship with people).  At the same time Jesus is summarizing all the laws that have come before, He is also pushing them to a higher level.  As the Apostle Paul will explain later to the Corinthians, you can follow all the instructions of God’s law to the letter, but if you do it without love, it lacks power. 

I love how Eugene Peterson translates what we are used to hearing as “heart, soul, and mind” as “passion, prayer, and intelligence.”  It just seems to imply a greater intensity and action;  I believe this was Jesus’s intention.  The Ten Commandments include a lot of “do not’s.” Do not have idols.  Do not misuse God’s name.  Do not kill. Do not lie.  Do not commit adultery.  Do not envy.  You get the point.  Jesus’s restatement is suggests that it’s not enough to avoid doing unloving things;  the point is to transform the actions of our lives to actively loving God and people.  What we see is that while Jesus has simplified the “ten” into “two,” the two are actually harder to live out.  Jesus has raised the bar. 

What does loving with all of our passion, prayer, and intelligence look like?  It’s looks as unique as our passions, prayers, and intelligence are.  My passion moves in a different direction than yours and your prayer doesn’t sound like mind.  Our intelligence is focused in different directions.  This is a beautiful thing.  By God’s design, the collective passion, prayer, and intelligence of the entire human race is channeled toward loving.  At least that is the divine invitation issued by Jesus in this exchange with the leading religious leaders of His day.  His answer silenced them; they ask Jesus no more questions in Matthew’s gospel after this (as we’ll see in the next devotional, Jesus had one more question for them though).  But in this invitation is the power that will change the world forever. It is still changing the world. Love God and love people.  So simple, but also so difficult.  It’s still the invitation today for you and me.

 

Question:  What does loving God and people with all your passion, prayer and intelligence look like?

 

Prayer: Lord of all people, you showed us what loving with passion prayer, and intelligence looked like in Jesus.  Shape our hearts, souls, and minds to be more and more like Christ.  Show us the specific opportunities we have today to love like Jesus.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Pray for people today that you have a hard time praying for. 

 

Song:  Love God, Love People – Danny Gokey (ft. Michael W. Smith)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-29WLQ3trA

Matthew 10:34-39 - Jesus, A Sword of Divsion?

 

October 11, 2021 - Jesus, a Sword of Division?

 

Matthew 10:34-39  “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,

    a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

     a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.  Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

 

“I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.”  This is one of the sayings of Jesus that many Christians would like to ignore.  Other Christians over the past two millennia have used to justify violence.  Neither of these approaches is helpful.  When Jesus says something, we should not ignore it and it is clear from the trajectory of all Jesus’s teachings that he is not one to incite violence.  So what exactly is Jesus saying here? 

As is almost always the case, we have to look at the larger context of what Jesus was saying.  Following His statement that he brings a “sword,” he talks about family divisions.  And my guess is that many of us know all too well how this works.  Many families have experienced division because of religious faith.  I had a friend my freshman year of college who was disowned by his Jewish family because he made the decision to become a Christian.  I know Christian families that have been divided by what the correct Christian position on a particular issue should be.  I also know many families who know that when they get together, discussions about religion (and politics) are off-limits. 

Jesus saw all of this coming.  He was warning his disciples (and us) that when we decide to follow Jesus, some of those closest to us will not understand and may not share our faith.  The “sword” here is not meant convey violence, but division.  Following Jesus has some unintended consequences and Jesus wants us to be sober about that reality.  Though He does not address it in this passage, his teaching elsewhere should guide us to continue to love and strive for peace with those loved ones who do not understand.  But in doing so, we are to never put our loved ones ahead of Jesus.

That for me is the hardest part of this passage.  Jesus warns that following Him will put us at odds with those we love to the point that we will be tempted to abandon our faith in order to make peace.  The hard teaching here is to never do that.  Always keep Jesus first.  Keep loving who you love, but love God more.  If you are forced to choose, choose God.  There’s no way to soften this.  It’s really hard.

However, there is some logic to this teaching if we think about it.  My faith and love for God have actually strengthened my ability to love others.  One reason for this is that God’s love is steadfast and completely reliable.  It never fails.  As I learn to trust that, I can love others better because I never have to doubt that I am loved.  God’s love frees me to love others without fear of being rejected because I will always enjoy the perfectly faithful love of God.  If I abandon my faith in God in order to make peace with my family, I have given up my one completely reliable source of love.  This is because, while my family does love me, they are human.  This means that their love for me will falter sometimes.  They will let me down as I also will let them down because I am human.  It’s only a matter of time before that happens.  It makes more sense to have held onto the perfectly reliable love of God when my other loves fail me.  In fact, God’s love for me will actually empower me to keep loving them when their love fails. 

Remembering the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40), we have to remember that there was a specific order given.  When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment was, he said “love God.”  He then said that the second one was to love people.  Love God and then, love people.  We could even say, love God so that we can love people more.

 

Question:  How has your faith enabled you to love others better?

 

Prayer:  God, thank you for loving me completely and faithfully my whole life.  Help me to always stay true to your love so that I can love others better. Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Spend some time asking God to help you connect more deeply to God’s love for you.

 

Song:  Dear Ex-Best Friend – Tate McRae

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2AHoCdChbk