The Simple Truth…

Matthew 22:36-40…"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.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

What’s interesting to me about this scripture is how the two commands are similar/circular. If you ask the questions, how can I love God, how can I show my love for God, how can I prove to God that I love Him, scripture answers it by saying that your love for God is revealed by following His commands. What is His most important command other than loving Him? Loving one another. So, in reality, to show your love for God, you are commanded to love your neighbor as yourself….THAT is showing your love for God. And notice, the command isn’t just to love your neighbor….it’s to love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, putting their importance, and their needs, on the same level as yours. It’s like sharing yourself with the world. Instead of being this little self contained entity, this center of the universe thing, you become part of all of humanity. Love is a spreading out of yourself…a giving up of yourself. He who is least is the greatest. He who is greatest is the servant of all. (Mark 9:35, Mark 10:33)

Matthew 7:12…So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

John 14:21…Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

John 15:10…If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.

John 13:34…"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

John 13:35…By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Romans 13:8…Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.

1Peter 1:22…Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

1John 3:11…This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.

1John 3:23…And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1John 4:7…Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1John 4:11…Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1John 4:12…No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

2John 1:5…And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.

1 Peter 4:10…Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

Matthew 25:34-40…"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ "Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ "The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Is the love that is in you, finding its way out?

Do you need to be loved…

…to love? In other words, can you truly love others, if you, yourself, did not receive that kind of love when you were growing up? Can it be formed in you without having learned it in that way?

Helping others…

What kind of help do people need the most? For instance, If you know someone that is really unattractive, what might be the best way to help them? Tell them that they need plastic surgery? Point out their flaws? How about loving them, being a true friend to them, just the way they are?

If you know someone that is unhappy, what might be the best way to help them? How about telling them how stupid it is to be unhappy? Try to convince them that being happy is better? Or how about just loving them, being a true friend to them, just the way they are?

If you know someone that is judgmental, what might be the best way to help them? Pointing out the error of their ways? Judging them for being judgmental? Or how about just loving them, being a true friend to them, just the way they are?

What if a person is negative/pessimistic? What might be the best way to help them? Shoot them and put them out of their misery? Call them names? Insult them? Or how about just loving them, being a true friend to them, just the way they are?

In my examples above, I mentioned both physical and behavioral issues. Some might think that they are very different things, but I don’t think so in the context of this writing. If a person is physically challenged, indeed, they did not choose that. On the other hand, if a person was born into a family that exhibited negative behaviors, they would likely inherit those traits as well, and again, neither did they choose that. The behavioral traits of a person may even be more insidious in that they may be completely unaware that they even exhibit those traits. It’s who they are….not who they are trying to be. Therefore, when someone attempts to correct that behavior, they are, in essence, insulting the very person exhibiting the behavior. Make sense?

I’m of the belief that love cures all, and the lack of love is at the root of most human psychological issues. It seems to me that criticism (accurate or not) only makes matters worse and is fodder for the devil. Criticism does nothing to build a person up and that is what we are called to do (Eph 4:29).

As we all know, love in word only, is hypocritical and useless. My Christian Interpretation would be that true love is loving in actions and in truth (1 John 3:18), and a person that is truly loved will find healing without even looking for it. It takes time, though. In many ways, we are the sum of our experiences, and I’m certain that virtually every one of us could use and benefit from a heaping helping of love and acceptance.

What constitutes faithfulness...

I guess that's the question for all of us that claim the name of Christ.  What must we do, who must we be, to be considered faithful?  Jesus said many things that are relevant, but two things stand out for me.  First, in John 14:21, Jesus said "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."  And then, in John 14:23, Jesus said  "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching."  If you had to sum up what Jesus's teaching was, my Christian Interpretation would be that it would come down to love (John 13:34  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."  Matthew 22:37-40  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.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."  Matthew 7:12  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.)

If love is the commandment, how then are we doing?  If you took a survey of yourself, and in one column you noted acts of selfless love, how many entries would there be?  Are we making the most of every opportunity, or are we a bit like the person James describes (James 1:23-24  Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.)?  Do we walk out the door and immediately forget who we are, who we want to be?  It's so easy to do that, and to be sure, satan doesn't miss an opportunity to attempt to derail the best of intentions.

You know, as I'm sitting here thinking about this blog entry, it just dawned on me that I have a heavy jacket in my closet that I rarely use and could live without.  The weather is getting colder here now, and we have many homeless people in this area.  Surely one of them could make better use of it.

Toiling...

I'm a lover of the great outdoors.  I've been hiking the hills and mountains since I was a child.  I hike for a number of reasons.  I love the quiet and privacy that being out in the middle of nowhere affords.  I like spending that time in fellowship with God and in contemplation of the things of life.  I like getting some exercise.  I like to explore, to see what's around the next turn. 

Recently I have been hiking in an area where there is a hawk nest along the way.  Each and every time I stroll by there, at least one of the hawks is in the air.  Usually both of them are.  It doesn't matter the time of day, evening, morning, or afternoon, there they are soaring above.  I presume they are looking for food and keeping an eye on their nest.  I'm amazed at how hard they work.

This appears to be the fate of most that live on this planet.  Virtually all life seems to be toiling to survive.  I know that's no revelation, but planet earth is a pretty rough place to eke out an existence.  Around every corner, and even up in the sky, there may be something hunting you and wanting to eat you, or in the case of man, maybe just to kill you for the fun of it.  You have to work diligently to get enough to eat, which often requires you killing other things.  Often times you have to come up with some sort of shelter as well.  Then there are the invisible killers like diseases, etc.  I guess it wasn't just Adam that was kicked out of the garden.  This is a planet that requires you to work very hard at surviving. 

The reason I mention all this is because on these very hikes that I often take, these very hikes where I observe the nature of life on this planet, I find myself asking God to help me to be more like Him.  His Word says that He is love...and if you live in love, you live in Him.  I'm asking that He help me to love like Him.  And then I remember another part of His Word.  It says that if you seek Him with your whole mind, heart, and soul, He will be found.  I look up at the hawks...and there they are seeking to survive with all their hearts and all the effort that goes into it.  I ask myself if I am striving that hard to be in God's presence...to love like He loves.

The wisdom of God...

Just a couple of examples of the wisdom and love of God. God says that we should not seek revenge. He says to leave that to Him (Romans 12:19…Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord). Someone might think that God loves to take revenge. My Christian interpretation would be that I don’t think so. God knows what revenge and vindictiveness feels like and what it does to a person and He wants to protect us from it. He knows that it is poison and asks you to hand it over to him…to rid yourselves of it...to cast your burdens on Him. In like manner, in the Old Testament God forbid the Israelites to eat fat (Leviticus 7:23…Say to the Israelites: ‘Do not eat any of the fat of cattle, sheep or goats’). The fat belonged to God. Why? Was it because God coveted the fat for Himself? Did God so love the fat of animals that He didn’t want to share it with us? Today we know that the fat of animals is not healthy. Once again, God was trying to protect us. This is the theme throughout the Word of God. Is not every commandment of God really an attempt by God to help us, to protect us, to bless us?