The Greatest Commandment

We all are familiar with the greatest commandment, however, I believe that it would be of benefit for us to reacquaint ourselves with it. 

 

"²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" ²⁹Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹ The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." ³²And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." ³⁴And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions." (Mark 12:28-34, ESV)

 

To love is to give your all, selflessness. The attitude of love is set forth in 1 Corinthians 13. It implies absolute devotion and commitment, and obedience. Have we as the American church forgotten this? Is our services, and the way we act honoring God and showing our love for Him in every fiber in our being? Or, are we hypocrites, "loving" Him in Church with our words, but our hearts and our minds are far from Him.

 

After a month here, (at College), I have realized there are two predominate camps, so to speak, in Christianity, and honestly, I have problems with both. On one side is the Emergent church. They at least realize that American Christianity is dead, and is not working, and they realize that something needs to change. However, in that pursuit for change, they are trampling on Scripture. It is no longer regarded as absolute truth, and this new camp is marked with compromise, in that we want to just be real. We are open about our failings, but we never move on. We just trust that God loves us just the way we are, and we don't need to change anything.

 

On the other side is the "fundamentalists", though I hesitate to call them that. If the Emergent camp's call is for Change, this camp is calling for Tradition. Whereas the Emergent version is becoming more like the world, this camp is seeking to be different, and set apart, which is good. However, I have issues with them as well. The main problem is the reverence toward tradition. Tradition is not bad, but the problem is when it is held in such high regard that anything contrary or new is thrown out and avoided. This is the KJV only camp, the Hymns only camp. While the overall call for set-apartness is great, and to be different, and the sacredness of God's Word is upheld, I feel that man's traditions are held on almost the same reverence as Scripture. In away, they remind me of the Pharisees. Their motive was in the right place, but they elevated man's ideas to the status of God's word. They may not say as such, but their actions proclaim otherwise.

 

Now please don't misunderstand me. I am not out to get either camp. (although I have a big issue with the Emergent camp distorting and disregarding God's Word. It is absolute Truth!) However, I have noticed some things that, as a man of God, I can not let go unsaid. We have forgotten what the greatest commandment means for our lives!

 

 ³²And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. ³³And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."

 

To truly Love God, with every fiber of our being is the the number one commandment, and to love others as ourselves is the second, and as the scribe rightly noted, that is more important than burnt offerings, sacrifices. In other words, more important than rituals and traditions, more important than questionable teachings and debatable matters. These quarrels over different translations, over Hymns only or not, over such small matters need to stop. It is hurting more than harming. The traditionalists are more guilty in this, upholding man's traditions to almost the same reverence as scripture. Is it worth the fighting? Yes, being set apart and holy is very important, but is the focus on the rules and traditions all there is?

 

The Emergent group is not left out either.  Yes, all this focus on tradition has made the church dead, and yes, we need a change, and yes God loves us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way we are. His Word is absolute. We can't just disregard it! The doctrine that has been coming from some of these leaders in this group has deeply saddened me. While I have read only excerpts of some of their work, and heard others on it, and have read other books inspired by this "new teaching", I have read enough to know that they are heading the church down the wrong way!

 

Please understand that I don't want to throw fuel to the fires of these controversies. Rather, I desire that our focus turns from things and ideas of Man to God alone! We need to love Him with all that we are, earnestly seeking Him! These squabbles within the Bride of Christ is not helping things. We need, to instead of being focused on new doctrine, and just being real, and tradition, and rules, we instead need to be focused on our King! Love the LORD your God with all that you are! Focus on Him, and seek to please Him.

 

Secondly, we need to love each other. Fighting in the church is not loving. Are we Christians?  "¹⁰I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought." (1 Corinthians 1:10, NIV) We are not accomplishing anything with the wrong focuses.

 

Now, I realize I may have stepped on some toes, and I apologize. However, I feel this must be said. Please understand that I am not "against" either camp. In reality, we need some thoughts from both: The Church as we know it in America is dead, and we need a change, a revival. We also need to be set-apart, living for Him, not being like the World. God does love us the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us that way.

 

Unfortunately, I feel both camps took some of what was good, and ran with it in the wrong direction. The sanctity of Scripture is to be protected. Man's rules are not the epitome of Christianity. This is where I feel they went wrong, and this is one thing that we can not yield on. Debates over versions or hymns or no hymns, the importance of "cultural relevance" are not. These are not worth fighting among the believers about. We need to stand united against the Devil! he is trying to turn us against ourselves, and it is working. This should not be!

 

Now, I mainly want this to be a call to stop our disputes, and turn our focus back where it belongs. We need to first and foremost, Love the LORD our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind - With every Fiber of our being! Secondly we need to not have disputes over small matters, but show Christ's love to each other. I think if we reacquainted ourselves with that, we would see the Church once more become powerful and effective. We can not live without Him. He is KING. We must love Him. If we do that, then He can work fully through us.

 

Consider this a call for unity and a right focus!

 

For His Glory!

 

"Where's the fruit?"

I was reading in Mark 11-12 today for my quiet time, and I came across this and it really caused me to stop and think.

"And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.

 And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves.

 And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine." (Mark 11:12-18, KJV)

Now, most of us are pretty familiar with the cleansing of the temple, but not so much with the first section. This part with the fig tree is, for the most part, overlooked. However, there is a message within that passage that is important to note. Let me explain.

Typically, fig trees produce fruit around the same time as it does its leaves, so a fig tree with leaves should have fruit. However, this one did not. It showed signs of fruit but there was none. How often is our "American Christianity" like this tree? We show signs of fruit, we may even talk about the fruit, and discuss how to produce it in our lives, but we don't actually have it. You have faith, but not works (James 2:17) We look healthy and fruitful but are, in reality, empty. We are hypocrites if we live like this. Jesus reaction to the fig tree shows His anger toward hypocrisy. He wants to see fruit in our lives ( the fruit of the Spirit, and doing what He calls us to do), and is very upset when we look like we are fruitful when in fact we not.

Now, this particular passage leads up to the next, with Jesus clearing the temple. The temple was supposed to be a sacred, set apart place, holy, and a place of worship. On the outside, it appeared to be so, but of course, as we know, it was filled with sin and disregard for holiness. When Jesus cleared the temple, it was because of the lack of fruit and the disregard of God's holiness, and the holiness of His temple. How about you or me? Are we fruitful? It grieves my LORD to have me not be fruitful and yet look so. May it never be in my life, or in yours. We are His temples. If there is any unclean thing, and that which in not fruit, it needs to be cleansed.

Now I realize that this is almost going into two separate points, but they are also connected. We need to be fruitful, and cleanse anything that is not from ourselves. We are His temple, so we must be holy, and bear fruit.  He cleansed the Temple because there was no fruit; instead there was things that were wrong.

Here is what I am driving towards. We need to be Holy, and set apart, but we also need to have fruit. May we not be lacking in either! If there is anything, any sin or impure thing in our lives, we need to drive it out! We need Jesus to pick up a whip and drive it out of our lives. On the same note, we need to bear fruit, to live out our faith. May we bear fruit for our King, and lack not. May we not be giving the appearance of fruit, but not having it, being a hypocrite, talking the talk but not walking the walk.

So consider this a call, first of all to be Holy, and to cleanse your temple of any sin, and secondly, bear fruit. Don't be hypocrite. Don't be found lacking in fruit, or your temple unclean when Christ returns.

For His Glory!