And expert of the law tested Jesus with a question: "What is the greatest commandment in the law?"
In a sweeping simplification of a thousand years of Jewish teaching, Jesus summed up God's law that anyone could understand. He replied: "Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments". (Matt. 22:34-40).
Love God. Love your neighbor. That's it!
To love God means to love Him with our heart and soul; to love Him with our whole being - totally and completely.
Jesus linked the second to the first by saying "and the second is like it". Loving our neighbor is like loving God.
If we truly love God, we will express it by loving our neighbors. When we truly love our neighbors, we express our love for God.
The two loves are fully interconnected and intertwined. The evidence of true faith is acts of love for others that Christ viewed as acts of love for Him.
The last command Christ gave us prior to his ascension must carry a weight similar to the first two commandments
If the mission of Jesus is a social revolution with a vision for a changed world, Jesus' Great Commission then, challenges his followers to take this revolution to the nations - to the ends of the earth. (See Matt 28: 16 - 20).
The spread of the Gospel has to be carried on earth by the Church - men and women commanded by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' followers were not to sit idly and await for his return. They were to work boldly in a social revolution that will be completed upon his return - when all things will be restored and his kingdom made complete.
We are to reclaim and redeem the world for Christ's kingdom.
In a sweeping simplification of a thousand years of Jewish teaching, Jesus summed up God's law that anyone could understand. He replied: "Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on those two commandments". (Matt. 22:34-40).
Love God. Love your neighbor. That's it!
To love God means to love Him with our heart and soul; to love Him with our whole being - totally and completely.
Jesus linked the second to the first by saying "and the second is like it". Loving our neighbor is like loving God.
If we truly love God, we will express it by loving our neighbors. When we truly love our neighbors, we express our love for God.
The two loves are fully interconnected and intertwined. The evidence of true faith is acts of love for others that Christ viewed as acts of love for Him.
The last command Christ gave us prior to his ascension must carry a weight similar to the first two commandments
If the mission of Jesus is a social revolution with a vision for a changed world, Jesus' Great Commission then, challenges his followers to take this revolution to the nations - to the ends of the earth. (See Matt 28: 16 - 20).
The spread of the Gospel has to be carried on earth by the Church - men and women commanded by Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus' followers were not to sit idly and await for his return. They were to work boldly in a social revolution that will be completed upon his return - when all things will be restored and his kingdom made complete.
We are to reclaim and redeem the world for Christ's kingdom.
No comments:
Post a Comment