Greetings siblings
I pray you are well. So much has happened around the world recently, including the double plane crashes. I pray we stay focused on God through it all. As believers, we are divided on our understanding of God’s directive. I urge us, whether we see things in the same way, to remember that there is a great commandment – to love God.
This deep abiding love of God insists on moving further afield. That was the point Y’shua Jesus’ detractors missed. That’s the point we’re reflecting about as we consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
Matthew 22:37-39 CEB
[37] He replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind.
[38] This is the first and greatest commandment.
[39] And the second is like it: You must love your neighbour as you love yourself.
It’s The Love Thing
Siblings, if we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, we’re well on our way to loving as God loves. For God’s love is all-encompassing, missing nothing, including everyone. It also means that we’re obliged to love our neighbour. That’s the tough part.
Self-Check
Is our love for God all-encompassing?
Does it extend to loving our neighbour?
Application
It is true, Y’shua was refuting the detractors. But let’s not forget His self-identification in the I-AM statements. He is Truth. In other words, nothing Jesus said is false information. So when He said that loving our neighbour as we love ourselves is the second-most important commandment, it is so.
Of course, we might choose to take issue with that statement. If so, we are welcome to revert to Exodus 20, which offers the first introduction to the Ten Commandments. Should we examine the nature of those Ten Commandments, we will quickly realize (as we’ve done in previous Nougats) that the first four are related to love and respect for God. We love God with all our being.
The last six do relate to our various relationships, extending even to our neighbors. I know that all our neighbours aren’t nice, and we really don’t wish to interact with them all, but we’re called to love them. The word for love used for loving our neighbor agapēseis is the same word used to tell us we should love God.
Oy! Y’shua is quite serious here, especially since our neighbour plésion is the same neighbour as described in Luke 10:27. We do recall that that neighbour, though despised culturally, was the one who proved worthy of being a friend in need. Hmmn. This reminds me of the concept, ‘love the sinner, but hate the sin’. Or do we simply damn them to Hell, beginning here on earth? I believe that Jesus answered that question for us on the cross …
We don’t have to agree. But love demands that we work on preserving the life of our neighbour, for that’s how we love as God does.
Point to Ponder
How did Y’shua’s two-part answer silence the Pharisee’s expert in the Law? Perhaps there’s a lesson embedded there for us also.
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May all we seek be found in Christ
