Saturday 2nd January

The Greatest Commandment

by    0 responses

Matthew 22:37-39

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.'"

Twenty first century life is full of rules. There are literally thousands of laws in the United Kingdom telling us what we are not allowed to do, from driving to fast to murdering people, from shoplifting to fraud. Working in a school, I am only too aware of the abundance of rules; homework must be done on time, go to lunch at the correct time, don’t walk over the grass next to the classroom block. I supervise detentions on Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes, and you would be amazed what some people are punished for!

Sometimes, to non-Christians, our faith can seem like a religion based solely on rules. Most people know the ten commandments, and lots of people are aware of the seemingly rather stranges laws of Leviticus and other Old Testament books. Christianity can seem like a whole long list of rules about things that we, as Christians are not allowed to do, and things that we are required to do. This makes Christianity seem like a very restrictive religion to many. Yet Paul tells us that “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1). This suggests that Christianity is actually more freeing than restricting!

Just prior to today’s verse, a Pharisee has tried to trick Jesus by asking him what the greatest commandment was. Jesus succinctly summaries the whole of the Old Testament law, and the nub of Christianity, by stating that we must firstly love God with every fibre of our being, and secondly that we should love our neighbour as ourself. Unfortunately, Matthew does not indicate the reaction of the crowd to Jesus’ answer, but I can imagine them being fairly stunned. All those rules and regulations that they thought they had to keep are summarised into just two lines!

As we being a new year and a new decade, it is perhaps worth thinking how much we adhere to this rule. Can we honestly say that we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul and all of our mind? Is he the single most important thing in our lives? And do we really love others as much as we love ourselves – those we do not get on with as well as those that we do? Are there people at work, for example, who wind us up who we treat in a manner that does not conform to this commandment? Let’s all resolve to love God, and our neighbours, more this year.

Leave a Reply

Allowed tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> <span style="">

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Simon is a teacher, writer and preacher based in Kent in the United Kingdom. Simon enjoys sailing, and is a keen geocacher. Simon is married to Claire.

About Daily Readings

As part of our active lifestyle of prayer and Bible reading, we are currently reading a small section of the Bible together each day and sharing our responses to it with each other. We also publish a short devotional thought on a key verse or two from each day's passage to prompt prayer or reflection.

Current Series

Introducing Daily Readings

Full reading plan

Recent readings

Current Series   

15th Oct   Luke 9:57-10:12
14th Oct   Genesis 26
13th Oct   Genesis 24:61-25:34
12th Oct   Genesis 24:1-60
11th Oct   Genesis 23
10th Oct   Genesis 21:22-22:24
9th Oct   Genesis 20:1-21:21

Also on Crossring

Forums

The hub of our online community, where Christians and others from around the world can meet to discuss tricky issues, ask questions, and share fellowship.

Articles

Longer, more in depth articles encompassing Bible studies, testimonies, inspirational pieces of writing and more.