Matt 22:35-40 And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” NASB
Humans instinctively rank everything in order of importance or consequence. It is how we make sense of life and it inevitably shapes our path. We regularly – even unconsciously – prioritize everything. Family vs. career. Feel good food vs. fitness. Big house or low debt. We try to have both, but one will always govern the other. Should I tithe this year or get a new car? Should I read Wayne’s blog or watch that rerun of House. (They take about the same time ?.)
Our life is the sum of the consequences of all of those choices. What we choose makes a huge difference in who we are, how happy we are, how healthy we are, and even where we will spend eternity. Many important decisions are made after very careful thought, but most are made almost mindlessly. We often let our appetites select with no forethought at all. That’s why we sometimes wake up one day and ask, “How did I wind up here with no money, or with heart disease, or a broken marriage, or a lost child?
If you think about it, it really makes some sense to prioritize intentionally, intelligently and in concert with the Lord. And as Steven Covey says in his book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “begin with the end in mind.” We prioritize to achieve goals.
If we are Christians, we at some point supposedly made a sincere and intentional decision (or confirmation) to give our life to Christ. Having made that decision, and if it was sincere and intentional, we should let our decision-making and prioritizing flow from that decision. What are the implications of my decision to become a Christian? How should I prioritize based on that decision?
Interestingly enough, our decision-making and our prioritizing reveal what decision we ACTUALLY did make back there. If I love God and care for my neighbor, I actually did make a decision for Jesus. If my decision-making and my prioritizing reflect the lifestyle of a secularist, I am only pretending to be a Christian. Our actions expose our actual choices (no matter what we say they were). Or as James tells us, our actions reveal what we really believe.
James 2:14-17 What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. NASB
I may call myself a Republican but vote Democrat. I may say I am for free market economics, but expect to be bailed out when I fail. I can call myself a Christian but fail to live according to the teachings of Christ. If that is true, I cannot be upset when someone calls me a hypocrite. I cannot be a follower of Jesus and not keep His commandments.
John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. NASB
John 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. 24 “He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. NASB
I realized one day that the lawyer (in Mt 22:35-40 above) was asking a really important question. He was asking Jesus to prioritize the commandments. He knew there were 613 commandments, rules and regulations in the Law, many of them apparently conflicting and far too many to monitor. Where to begin? Which ones were the most important, the most impactful, and the most necessary?
Jesus gave him (and me) the answer, an answer Jesus got from His Bible. First, He said, you must love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. Second, you must love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep these two, you will wind up keeping the rest satisfactorily.
Now I don’t know about you, but I was surprised by Jesus’ answer. I had always thought you needed to know your Bible and do good works to make God happy. Right doctrine! Right practice! So I was startled at the implications of the answer that Jesus gave this lawyer. It changed my whole process of prioritizing my life. It led me to finally understand that all salvation is based in relationship with God and with my neighbor.
My religious rhetoric and my best efforts at behavior had been frustrating and futile. My new focus on relationship with God and my neighbor changed how I lived my life, how I spent my time and money and how I conversed with God. I quit asking God to teach me more scripture. I stopped striving to make myself a better person. I began to ask God to teach me how to love Him and to better serve my neighbor. I came up with a new goal. I set as my primary goal to become God’s friend!
In order to be God’s friend, we must first begin as His servant, His disciple. We must keep His commandments. Jesus explained this to His disciples.
John 15:13-15 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. 14 “You are My friends, if you do what I command you. 15 “No longer do I call you slaves (servants), for the slave (servant) does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. NASB
So how do I keep the First Great Commandment that Jesus gives us in Mt 22 above? It is important to know.
When I was a child, I was blessed to be trained as a Christian even while I was learning to read, write and do arithmetic. In our Catholic grade school we studied Catechism. In the early church, anyone preparing to become a Christian was called a catechumen.
People who wished to be baptized had to study the principles of Christianity and demonstrate a basic understanding before they could be baptized. The course of study they went through began to be called Catechism. As a young Catholic boy, I had to study basic Christian principles for six or seven years before I could be confirmed. I still remember those studies.
The first Catechism question is, “Who is God?” The answer is, “God is the Supreme Being who created everything.” The second Catechism question is, “What is man?” The answer is, “Man is the created being that God made to share His creation.” The third Catechism question is, “Why am I here?” The answer is, “I am here to know, love and serve God with my whole heart, my whole mind, my whole soul and my whole body.”
Sound familiar? It is basically the answer that Jesus gave the lawyer explaining the first and greatest commandment. It is also the answer that Moses gave Israel when they asked the same question.
Deut 6:4-9 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. NASB
Moses told Israel that they must inscribe these words on their hearts and diligently teach them to their children “when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.” They were told to wear them (like a tattoo) on their hands and their foreheads. They were to write them down on a little piece of paper, put them in a matchbox size container, and nail it to their door posts so they could see it whenever they entered of exited their house.
The prayer was called the Shema and the little box was called a Mezuzah. It was the most important thing God wanted them to know and the most important commandment to obey. It was the first great commandment; i.e., first in importance and first in priority. All others flowed from it.
Not only am I supposed to live like this, but also I am to teach my children also to live like this. The best way to teach is to model and to be consistent. We should model it the first great commandment in the morning when we rise up, as we sit at the table to eat, when we are together during the day and when we tuck them in at night. This model assumes that families get up together preparing for work, school or the day’s activities. It assumes that we eat meals together and talk about formative things. It assumes we spend time together in our activities (scouts, sports teams, cleaning house, tending the lawn). It assumes we pray for our children and discuss formative things at bedtime. OOPS!
Our culture is different from the biblical culture, but the assignment is the same. We cannot expect the children to know, love and serve God if we ourselves fail to model it.
So why did the lawyer in Mt. 22 above not understand this. He was an “expert” in the Torah Law. Was he testing Jesus? Or had he just forgotten it? Was he so caught up in details that he lost sight of it? Perhaps he could not see the trees for the forest. Luke tells us about another lawyer who knew the answer right away.
Luke 10:25-29 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered and said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” NASB
Jesus told this lawyer point blank, “If you do this, you will live.” I had read and heard this hundreds of times. It was often preached when I was a child. I read it frequently as I learned the Bible in later years. But at some later point, I heard it in my heart for the first time. It was revealed to me.
I suddenly remembered my Catechism and I realized that God had been trying to tell me this from the beginning. My lights came on and I reprioritized everything I knew about God. I suddenly understood exactly how to enter into a real, non-religious relationship with God. It changed the focus of my prayer life and I asked the Holy Spirit to change my behavior as well as my heart.
Gradually, He has been making progress in my life. I am only a work in progress, but I know more and more what God wants me to do and I am becoming more and more His friend.
If you are interested, I am glad to offer you some perspective. What does all this mean to me on a practical level? First, (using my Catechism format), I discovered that I needed to know, love and serve the Lord.
Knowing God from a biblical perspective is VERY different from the way we use the term “to know” in our culture. Knowing biblically is a term freighted with energy and action. It is not a passive mental exercise. For instance, the Bible sometimes uses the word “know” to describe intimate, sexual relationship between a husband and his wife.
Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. KJV
Matt 1:24-25 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS. KJV
We, even in our culture, often emphasize the word “know” to delineate casual knowledge and deeper understanding. “Jack really knows his subject!” is a different use of the word “know” than Jill knew that Jack was coming after 5pm. We need to know God with the former level of energy and intimacy.
The word “love” in our culture suffers similarly. You can love Oreo cookies with milk or you can love your daughter with all of your heart. You would give your daughter a kidney or even jump in front of a train to save her. You would not give your life for Oreos and milk. We are called to love God even more than our daughters, our wives, our parents and even our own life.
Luke 14:25-26 Now great multitudes were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate (love less or prioritize lower) his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. NASB
The Greek word Jesus uses for “hate” is miseo. It does not mean “despise” as we would use it. It means to “love less than” or “prioritize lower.” Jesus assumes his hearers love their parents, their wives, their children and their lives with the highest love. He is saying we must love God even MORE than we love those others.
The word “servant” in the Bible is interchangeable with the word for “slave.” The Greek noun is boulos or doulos. The verb “serve” is latreuo and describes the actions of a menial servant or a giver of adoration. We in the west do not much like the terms slave or servant, but we are talking about the kingdom of Heaven here, not membership in a club. We are talking about submitting to the living God and creator, not an elected President.
From all of this, we understand that we are to know God intimately and with a lot of energy, to love Him more than our own life, wife and children and to serve Him in a manner reminiscent of a Victorian butler. (Think Masterpiece Theater’s Downton Abbey).
Another image is that of a soldier to his commanding officer. Is that typically how we think of our relationship with God? It was not how I thought of it. I knew Him like I knew addition and subtraction, not calculus. God was academic to me. I loved him like a grandfather, not more than my own life and not even as much as my immediate family. I served him by semi-regular attendance and writing midsize checks, not like a butler or a soldier. I was wrong!
The Bible says the Lord is our shield and buckler (another smaller leather shield). We read it that the Lord is our shield and butler. I expected God to serve me well or I let Him know of my displeasure. I graded Him on His performance. He didn’t always measure up. What was I thinking?!?
Moses told Israel they needed to love God with all their might. In Catechism, I learned I must know, love and serve God with my whole heart, my whole soul, my whole mind and my whole body. “My whole heart” refers to the highest level of my emotions. “My whole soul” refers to the fullest level of my being or existence. “My whole mind” means with all of my intellectual capacity. “My whole body” means with complete commitment in my daily and earthly activities.
Now I understood why I was supposed to rejoice in all things in obedience, to live all my life for His glory, to dedicate my thoughts, my study and my beliefs to line up with His and to work eat, sleep and play to His glory. It has resulted in a miraculous peace and purpose in my life, and isn’t that the end we all have in mind?
Phil 4:4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice ! 5 Let your forbearing spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. NASB
Phil 3:8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ…NASB
Now you can see why I found this understanding so radical, and why I found it so significant. This is what God really wants from us. He wants an intimate, energetic, familial, fruitful, respectful relationship, and He died to make it possible. God knows that we cannot get there by our own efforts, so He has made arrangements to change us.
It is by God’s grace that we can do this and only by God’s grace. It is through Jesus’ blood that we can respond correctly and it is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be changed to walk like this. All we have to do is to want it, to knowingly seek it and to intentionally ask God for it.
It is really frustrating to be lost. If I am headed west when I should be going north, south or east, it does not help to drive faster or even to persevere. I need to have the right directions before perseverance pays off. I need to have the right direction before driving faster helps.
One can drive in the wrong direction with all of their heart, soul, mind and body. I spent a lot of years driving in the wrong direction. I was going hell bent down Works Boulevard and Good Intentions Avenue. I needed to be driving down Know, Love and Serve God Street. I needed to be heading up Relationship Road.
Saul of Tarsus was arresting and killing Christians with all of his heart, soul, mind and body. That put him in exactly the same category as Osama Bin Laden or ISIS. He was doing it for God, just like OBL, but he was heading in the wrong direction. In a similar vein, I was really dedicated to doing good things for God as well, and all of it was good stuff. Then God showed me that what He really wanted was a relationship with me.
I was doing the “Martha” thing but God was wanting the “Mary” behavior. I was busy accumulating for my kids college but they wanted to spend more time with me. I was busy working to give my wife a big house, but she also wanted to spend more time with me. People who are in love with each other always want to spend more time together. That’s what God wants also.
Cain wanted to offer God some groovy green veggies al dente but God wanted roasted lamb. We can wreck big time on the rocks of doing good stuff for God. The only safe harbor is to go where He is leading.
Moses and Jesus agree. Old and New Testament agree. The first thing we need to do is to learn to love God. He will enable us to love our neighbor and then all other things will fall in place. There is nothing God wants more from me and you than an intimate, conversational relationship.
There is nothing God wants us to focus on more than to know, love and serve Him. It is God’s best advice to us if we want to become like Jesus. It is God’s greatest and foremost commandment.
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