The greatest commandment

I know I wanted to go through the book of Proverbs, but the church I’m going to has started going through the program called, “The 40 days of love” and I felt it would be worth writing about the observations I make as I go through this wonderful program.

The Bible is more than just a book about knowledge and wisdom. Even more than that it is a book about the greatest love, and the relationship between God and man. The Ten Commandments are all about love. Mark 12: 28-31 says: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "O“ all the commandments, which is the most important?" ”
”The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

The Ten Commandments all have to do with how we relate to God, and others. There are many people who give to charities, go to church, and pray loud, and long in public places. They do this so that everyone will know how great they are. They do all this in the name of Christ, but none of it matters if the only reason they do it is so that everyone will notice them. Doing things with a reward in mind is putting yourself first, and others second.

Many religions believe that you have to convert people, or give something up, or do charities to get to heaven, but that is thinking about the reward and not God or others. The commandments are all about putting others first. People will watch what we do, and call us great, and tell us things that build up our ego, but God sees what’s in our heart, and he knows our motivation. If we do something for recognition and people call us great, then we will have what we want. If we do something out of love, we do it regardless of the recognition, and what people tell us won’t make one bit of difference.

When we leave the world, and stand before God, he will judge us by our love of him and others, not by our actions.

Challenge: If you want to follow along with the program, the name of the book is, “The Relationship Principles of Jesus” by Tom Holladay.

Enjoy,
Allen