When a follower of
Jesus looks at God's Word with a desire to show their love for Jesus by obeying
His commands (John 14:15,23), they may get overwhelmed.
After all, there are
more commands than we may care to count. There are commands regarding family
relationships, church relationships, relationships with those in need and even
relationships with our enemies; commands regarding our work ethic; commands regarding
our attitudes, thoughts, and motivations; commands regarding activities we are
to engage in and activities we are to avoid; etc.; etc.; etc.
Sometimes, it can
even feel like the game I used to play called "Whac-A-Mole." I stood
with a mallet in my hand and waited for a plastic mole to stick his head up out
of a hole on the game board. When he did, I tried to hit his head with a mallet.
But, as soon as I did, he disappeared and another mole jumped up from another
hole. I tried to hit him but he disappeared almost instantly as another mole
popped up from another hole.
Well, I'm so glad
that Jesus made it easy for us. In Matthew 22:36-40, a lawyer approached Jesus
and tried to publically back Him into a corner. He wanted to ask Jesus a
question to which there was no good answer thus discrediting Him. The lawyer
asked: "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" (Matthew
22:36). In other words, it was thought that whatever commandment Jesus gave, He
would split the crowd because everyone had their own opinion regarding which
commandment among the hundreds and hundreds of commands was the most important.
Yet, Jesus said that loving God and loving others were the two most important
and that "on these two commandments depend all the Law and the
Prophets." (Matthew 22:40). In other words, every command of Scripture is
based upon the fact that we love God and others. It also means that if we focus
on obeying these two commands, we end up obeying the others.
God moved the
Apostle Paul to write the same thing: "For the whole law is fulfilled in
one word: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Galatians 5:14).
It was said again in
my Bible reading this morning in Romans 13:8-10 (ESV):
"Owe no one
anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law. For the commandments, 'You shall not commit adultery, You
shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,' and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word: 'You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling
of the law."
That makes the
Christian life so much simpler to grasp (I didn't say it would be easy; it's
simpler.). If I just focus on having a Jesus-kind-of-love for God and others,
the other stuff will fall into place.
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