Jesus 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."
Critics love to poke holes at the congruency of the Bible, saying that it contradicts itself. Here is a prime example of the Bible saying one thing in the Old Testament and then something else in the New Testament!
To better understand this, it helps to go back to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy... too much? Indeed, there’s a lot in there. But this was ‘The Law’. It contains the 613 mitzvah (rules/commandments/law/words) that every Jewish child needs to learn when they become sons and daughters of the law (bar/bat mitzvah) and take on the responsibility of following GOD. The 10 Mitzvah in Exodus 20 are known as The Ten Words.
As a Christian, I was only taught ten commandments at Sunday School, not six hundred! And right there, under the guise of sweet innocence, our foundational teachings in the Christian faith skew our perceptions and understanding of our relationship with GOD. Instead of us viewing these commandments (10 or 613, doesn’t actually matter) as a checklist to chastity, we should see them as a profile for what life should look like when we love our GOD with all our heart, mind and soul.
To better understand this, it helps to go back to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy... too much? Indeed, there’s a lot in there. But this was ‘The Law’. It contains the 613 mitzvah (rules/commandments/law/words) that every Jewish child needs to learn when they become sons and daughters of the law (bar/bat mitzvah) and take on the responsibility of following GOD. The 10 Mitzvah in Exodus 20 are known as The Ten Words.
As a Christian, I was only taught ten commandments at Sunday School, not six hundred! And right there, under the guise of sweet innocence, our foundational teachings in the Christian faith skew our perceptions and understanding of our relationship with GOD. Instead of us viewing these commandments (10 or 613, doesn’t actually matter) as a checklist to chastity, we should see them as a profile for what life should look like when we love our GOD with all our heart, mind and soul.
However, instead, we draw pictures and learn the 10 off by-heart, believing that we are now better, somehow closer to GOD. The flip side is that we feel terrible and worthless when we can't keep them. The problem: we will never be able to keep them all. The solution: Jesus Christ - Grace.
The truth is, that worldly knowledge doesn’t draw us closer to GOD; drawing closer to GOD gives us wisdom. Religion often becomes a quest for knowledge and we believe that the more we know, the closer we are to holiness. This was a common heresy in the early church, it was called Gnosticism.
We shouldn't seek to know more about GOD, we should seek to know GOD more. Worship has been described as 'A lifelong process of knowing GOD and being known by GOD.' You can know everything about someone, but still not know them. You still with me?
Jesus answered the teacher of the law by reminding him that none of the hundreds of ‘commandments’ that were observed by the Jewish people were of any value if they weren’t founded on the greatest commandment: Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, with all your mind and all your soul. He said that everything in GOD’s Law, and all the prophets, hang on this commandment, and the command to love others as ourselves is the second most important. He was pointing out to this religious scholar that all his knowledge about GOD is useless if he don't have a personal knowledge of GOD. We can't rely on stuff that other people have told us is important, we need to know GOD.
The new promise, the one that we have because of Jesus' act of Grace on the cross, is that we don't have to focus on the rules. It appears that GOD's command has always been that we embrace and share His love. It naturally flows, then, that we would treat others with love and respect, that we would put nothing before GOD and that everything that we have thought we ‘should’ be doing, will be covered.
GOD is about relationships, that’s what Jesus is trying to tell us (and Moses in Deut 6:5). Our worship is about relating to GOD, an encounter that matures into engagement and encouragement.
Jesus answered the teacher of the law by reminding him that none of the hundreds of ‘commandments’ that were observed by the Jewish people were of any value if they weren’t founded on the greatest commandment: Love the LORD your GOD with all your heart, with all your mind and all your soul. He said that everything in GOD’s Law, and all the prophets, hang on this commandment, and the command to love others as ourselves is the second most important. He was pointing out to this religious scholar that all his knowledge about GOD is useless if he don't have a personal knowledge of GOD. We can't rely on stuff that other people have told us is important, we need to know GOD.
The new promise, the one that we have because of Jesus' act of Grace on the cross, is that we don't have to focus on the rules. It appears that GOD's command has always been that we embrace and share His love. It naturally flows, then, that we would treat others with love and respect, that we would put nothing before GOD and that everything that we have thought we ‘should’ be doing, will be covered.
GOD is about relationships, that’s what Jesus is trying to tell us (and Moses in Deut 6:5). Our worship is about relating to GOD, an encounter that matures into engagement and encouragement.
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