Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
WOW. For these being the two most important commandments... I'm not doing so well. Jesus spelled it out so plainly yet I feel like so many of us are failing miserably at both of these commandments.. I know I am.
First off, we are supposed to love the Lord with ALL of our hearts, souls, and minds.
Think about a person that you love with your whole heart. You would do anything for them, right? You want to spend all of your time with them, right?
Duh.. I mean that's obvious.
But how come I can't seem to give the MAKER of the earth the time of day?
I am constantly shrugging Him off.
It's actually devastating that time and time again I have thrown God under all of the people on this earth that I love.
Second, were supposed to be loving our neighbor as ourselves.
yikes.
Quite honestly, there are people in my life that I don't really want to love.
Well... guess what? IT DOESN'T MATTER if we want to love them or not. We have to.
It is a command. The greatest.
If we continue on with this... 'I'll only love the people that I want to love' stuff, then how are we any different then someone who isn't following Christ?
We aren't!
I really believe that we need to transform the way that we look at things.
Christianity is not a feel good religion.
So yes, that means loving the "christian" who acts nothing like a christian,
that means loving the people that disgust you,
that means loving the people you don't understand,
that means loving those who have seriously wronged you,
that means loving those who disrespect you over and over again,
that means loving your worst enemy
Trust me, my flesh doesn't want to love the way that we are called to. It's easier and way more comfortable to just sit back and do nothing. But we are called to a higher standard then everyone else.
So if were going to profess it, then lets live it.
WOW!! You are spot on! Awesome challenge.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful words and insight. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat encouragement Bethany! =) Needed to hear that!
ReplyDeleteThis hit the heart, very convicting :) it's so hard to love some people! :)
ReplyDeleteDid you read my mind when you wrote this? Thank you for the awesome reminder! If we are going to follow Jesus, we need to be more like Him, and love everyone just because that's what he did. :) i don't want to be a "lukewarm" Christ follower!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this reminder. It's so easy to get caught up in life and end up making excuses for our behavior. Those excuses aren't fooling Christ!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this :)) Lovely post.. Great Blog you have here, .I'm officially following ya with smiles.. I also wanted to know if you would like to join in on my project..? Project PINK.. Painting the blog world PINK for a day.. Breast Cancer Awareness on Oct 3oth..!! Over 40 blogs so far are in.. Please check it out - it'll mean SO MUCH to me.. Wishing you a lovely weekend..http://theartsygirlconnection.blogspot.com/2011/10/paint-your-blog-pink-awareness-faith.html
ReplyDeletesuch a great post girl! and what a great reminder to us to even love those people who put us down.
ReplyDeletexo TJ