While I am not the first person to focus on ORGANIC CHRISTIANITY, I believe that God is really challenging not only me as person, but us as a group (this is the Blog for SHIFT.STUDY – The Young Adult Bible Study @ People’s Church in Edmonton, AB – www.peopleschurchedmonton.com) to cut out all of the preservatives and get back to the TRUTH.
If we are going to get back to the TRUTH then we only have one place to go: Scripture. Jesus obviously was rustling feathers all throughout his earthly ministry, but the funny thing was that he kept confounding the so-called experts, so the spiritual experts of that time, decided that it would be best if they trapped Jesus in his own words, and out of this trap came one of the greatest revelations of all time:
“ 34Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37Jesus replied: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[ 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 21.34-40 NIV
Here, Jesus fires back at the experts with some Old Testament Truth, referencing both Deuteronomy 6.5 and Leviticus 19.18… and here is what I can pull out of the text.
I believe that it boils down to:
1. LOVE GOD
2. LOVE OTHERS
But I believe that there is a truth that our generations needs to latch onto… the final part is
3. LOVE YOURSELF
The scripture insinuates that we are to treat our neighbors the same way that we are to treat ourselves, but the fact of the matter is that if we treated our neighbors the way we treat ourselves we would probably end up with no neighbors left!
There is an epidemic of self-hate that has come coupled with our increase in obesity, and our over-saturation to a remarkably negative media which attacks us subliminally with ideals that we as ‘regular’ people can never live up too…
The scripture says that we must LOVE GOD with everything, our hearts, our souls, our our minds, and dare I say, our bodies (Romans 12.1-2)
To LOVE GOD requires that we realize who we are in Christ, sons & daughters of the King, a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2.9)… it requires the we understand His sacrifice, and then it simply requires… everything … living a lifestyle of worship … living a lifestyle of LOVE
To LOVE OTHERS requires a knowledge of who we are, it requires the love of Christ in us, and it demands that we go over and above, for our enemies, and for our friends, without judgement or criticism (Romans 14/15) … and it also includes the following clause:
that we LOVE OURSELVES …
because here is the finisher, the knock-out punch by Jesus himself:
40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.v.40 NIV
37-40Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them. v.37-40 The Message
The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments. v.40 NLT
1 Comment
January 15, 2009 at 11:05 pm
How should we show our love to the Lord Eternal? to fellowmen? Oftentimes, people are confused on how to love in the real sense of the word love the SMART way (Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Result-oriented, Time-bound)…..