Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Matthew 22:37-39 KJV
Context:
Throughout the earthly life of Jesus, you would always find men who wanted to trip him up so he could say something they found offensive, and which they could use as grounds of charges against him. Today's extract follows the same pattern. Truth is very expensive and at the same time also quite scarce. It is not popular or widely accepted, and anyone who would seek, find and hold on to it must be willing to pay the price for it. Why do I seek Jesus: for the optics (how) it looks, or for the true life he offers?
The Saducees had just been put in their place. The Pharisees felt it was their time to shine. A lawyer from the sect asked a question, wanting to know which of all the law, was the greatest commandment. At the time the law was given, God never did say that one was the greatest. He laid down the law for his people, defining terms and conditions for engagement with him, as well as man's relationship with other men also. What lessons does the response of Jesus hold for me today?
Message and Response:
1. Love is a Command: if Jesus' response to the question on the greatest commandment is love, it means that love is a command. Like all commands, it does not give me room to choose which part I like or am comfortable with, but it demands total obedience from me. From God's perspective, partial obedience is the same as outright disobedience, so I must audit my heart and be sure I am aligned with God's command.
2. Love is a Choice: as much as God lays it down as a command, it is still first and foremost a matter of choice for me. God does not go against the exercise of my free will. If I will love, it is because I have come to understand what it entails, what it will demand from me. The opposite is also true: if I cannot love, it is because I have not experienced the genuine thing yet.
3. Love makes contact: love does not exist in a vacuum; it has to be felt for it to be true. I cannot claim to love God or people, yet there is no outward proof of that contact or connection with God or people. Can I claim to love God, yet there is no desire to do the things that glorify him? Can I claim to love people, yet nobody can point to any contact or personal connection? What kind of love exists from afar, with no direct impact on the life of the recipient of love?
For us, a life was given as proof of God's love. Even when we reject him, he does not withhold his love from us until we do not have time to respond to the love anymore. It is also from what I have received and responded to that I can share with other people. I cannot give what I do not have, and I cannot draw out of an account into which I have not made any deposit.
4. Love is complete: if it is not the whole, I must not bother giving it. If it does not demand all of my heart, I must not waste my time with half-hearted devotion. My greatest response to God's love is to give him ALL my heart, soul and mind. He is God, so I cannot get away with less than my all. He sees my heart, so there is no room for hypocrisy, deceit or eye-service. He knows; that understanding must keep me sane, humble and ever-dependent on God for his help.
5. Love is connected to the divine and the earthly: it is when the divine is healthy that the earthly can be impacted. I take from that which God has birthed in me and use it to impact the lives of the people around me. That is why today's extract cannot be complete without the impact on man: first the God-connection, then the man-connection. The order is important; I cannot take the earthly first, because it is the divine that controls the earthly.
When the divine is settled and in place, earthly Impact is non-negotiable. No wonder these are the greatest commandments: Love for God and love for man. No earthly law can make it an offence. Man can resist it but it cannot kill that which he does not understand. All I can do is have it and show it and let God do his utmost and mighty with the life that is surrendered to him. His time of favour is here.
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