Making the Christian life simpler

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.

The Greatest Commandment and 'warm fuzzies'

One day, a lawyer came to Jesus and asked what the greatest commandment was. Even though he asked the question to corner Jesus, it was a great question.


After all, there were hundreds and hundreds of commandments when you consider all of the commands in the Old Testament and the ones the religious leaders had added. The answer to this question was the topic of intense debate among the religious leaders of that day.


So, the question would have been a great question if it hadn't been asked with wrong motives. "There are so many commands that I can't remember them all much less obey them. Which one is so basic and essential that if I got everything else wrong, I need to get that one right?"


Here's how Matthew 22:35-38 records the conversation. "And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?' And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.'"


Jesus took the question seriously and gave a serious answer. The greatest and most important command is to love God with everything we've got.


That's pretty straight forward. But that begs the question ... "how?" How do we love God with all of our heart, soul and mind?


In a society where we talk of falling in love or falling out of love, we equate love with a fleeting emotion. Is that what Jesus is calling us to? If so, what about those godly men and women who aren't the affectionate type? Can they obey the Greatest Commandment?


To understand how we love Jesus, all we need to do is search the Scriptures to find out how He wants us to love Him. We can rest easy that we don't have to look far and wide. Jesus gave the answer repeatedly in one of His discourses no doubt to make sure His audience got the message. 


Let me share with you what He said about how we are to love Him:


John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (emphasis added)


John 14:21 "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me..." (emphasis added)


John 14:23-24 "...If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words..." (emphasis added)


Jesus' words are clear, aren't they? If we love him, we'll obey Him. If we don't want to love him, we'll disobey. Obedience = love. Disobedience = failure to love. It's that simple.


Do you want to love Jesus with all of your heart, soul and mind and thus comply with the Greatest Commandment? Simply commit to the Lordship of Christ.


Realize that while you are God's child, you are also His slave (Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Titus 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1; Revelation 1:1). He is your master. You don't belong to yourself because you were bought at a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). That's slave talk!


What do slaves do? It's really not that complicated. Slaves simply obey.


Show Him you love Him by diligently studying His Word and then complying with everything He commands.


And one little secret - when you develop a lifestyle of obedience, the feelings of love for the Lord will almost certainly come.