Love God. Love others.
That’s it.
But how? What does that mean?
Loving your neighbor should be somewhat understandable. We deal with human relationships all the time. We have the parable of the Samaritan. The man who bandaged and took care of someone who would have been an enemy because of race. We are told to love our enemies, but how are we to love someone we hate? Love is action. Show me love without action and I’ll show you someone who’s fooling himself. Loving your enemy does not first require that you feel nicely toward that person, but that you behave kindly, and then allow the warm feelings to grow with time.
But loving God. How does one love God? Singing songs? Feeling nicely toward him in your heart? Believing certain things? Our relationship with God is comparable to two human relationships. The marriage relationship and the parent-child relationship.
He buys her flowers. He has no idea why flowers are such a big deal, they’re going to die in a few days anyway, but she really likes them, so he gets them. She knows he can’t stand spinach, so she hasn’t tried to make him eat spinach casserole. They talk to each other. They know the other’s likes and dislikes. They know what the other hates and what the other really likes. They do what they know will please the other. Some of the biggest problems come when he does something wrong and doesn’t realize it. Or he just decides it’s no big deal even though it’s a big deal to her. When couples have to go to marriage counseling, the counselor doesn’t tell the couple to try to change their feelings. They change behaviors and the feelings will follow. Lost love is usually caused by doing or not doing. She can tell him she loves him forever, she may even feel like she loves him, but until she acts out that love it’s just words and feelings and not love.
A child shows his love for his parents by obeying them and by drawing with crayons on construction paper. The child doesn’t know why he can’t touch the stove, but because he trusts his parents he wont touch it. If parents and children don’t love each other, there will be a lack of rules, discipline, and obedience.
Sabbath is like a wedding ring showing that I am his and he is mine. The ring is worth a lot of money, but that’s not its real value. Rest on the Sabbath may be good for you physically, but its real value is spiritual. It’s the same with the other commandments, they are a demonstration of your love for God. “If you love me, keep my commandments.”
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”
True, God does not want us to just be robots that do whatever he says. He wants our hearts and our actions. It's not either you obey the Law or you have faith in Christ. It's both. It's not Love or Works. It's both. God wants your everything. Your love, obedience, faith, knowlege, blindness, wisdom. All of you. It's everything. Do you get it? Jesus is not just the Gospels, he is the epistles, he is Revelation, he is Torah, he is the Psalms, Prophets, Proverbs, he is the sacrifices, the priestly garments, honor your father and mother, he is do not murder, he is the sanctity of life, he is the holiness of the Sabbath, he is I AM. Study him, Love him, Serve him. Be conformed to his image. Do Not make up excuses in order to avoid the parts of him that make you uncomfortable.
3 comments:
I’m trying to decide how to respond. I could say something about each part of your post, maybe I will later.
You say that there is such a thing as sin. You say we’re not free to do whatever we feel. But are we free to do whatever we think is good and loving? What is your standard, foundation, bottom line? How do you know what is right and wrong? Your heart and mind can deceive you. You can’t see from God’s perspective. You gave some reasons for why you do or don’t do certain things. An atheist could come up with the same reasons you gave. How important is the Bible to you?
I don't mean to be harsh. I apologize if it seems that way.
You don't seem harsh at all. The Bible is important to me, but it is not a replacement for a relationship with Jesus.
The litmus test for whether or not something is a sin is found in complying with the two greatest commandments: love God and love others as yourself. Here's the deal, there are thousands of Christians who do not have access to the scripures, but are fully surrendered to God out of their passion for Him. You said that we cannot see from God's perspective. Why not? We might not be able to see from God's perspective when we first become Christians, but isn't that our goal in gaining a relationship with Him? It's kind of like the best friend I had in high school. We knew what each other thought about something without even saying a word to each other. My goal is to have such a deep relationship with God that I know exactly what He thinks about things without having to spend hours in Bible study (please understand, I am not trying to devalue Bible study, just put it in perspective). I do believe that Bible study is a key part in growing in our relationship with God, but I also believe that there is so much more to it than just that.
I have to go to class now, I'll finish my thought later.
“We are slaves to Jesus... but not slaves to the law.”Like I quoted, “why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?” If we are Jesus’ slaves then we should do what he says. Is Jesus God? God gave us commands. Jesus/God commanded us to not murder, not steal, keep the sabbath, not commit the various types of sexual immorality, etc. As slaves to Jesus/God, we should DO what he SAID.
“God was trying to protect His people, because for some reason they didn't know any better.”
When God gave the commandments, was he giving them to barbaric cavemen who just didn’t know any better? Now that we're enightened, we don't need those dumb laws anymore. Do you think that the commands that God gave that mention clean/unclean were just given for health reasons? Like I said in the post, the commandments do have physical benefits, but the purpose of the commands is ultimately spiritual. You’ve probably heard that pork can make you sick if it’s not cooked right, and that’s why the Israelites couldn’t eat it. But beef and chicken can make you sick if they’re not cooked right, yet the Israelites could eat them. What’s up with that? And in 40 AD (after you think whatever you think happened to the law), did they know all about bacteria and stuff?
“The litmus test for whether or not something is a sin is found in complying with the two greatest commandments: love God and love others as yourself.”Whose definition of love are we going to use? Some Christians are all about tearing the Bible down to those two phrases and interpreting love however they want.
“Now that we are no longer under the law, we have a greater responsibility to seek out the heart of God and do things that please Him.”Have you read my earlier posts? When you or your pastor or the apostle Paul get any type of insight from God it has to agree with previous revelation, i.e. scripture. Do you agree? Any mystical guidance you get from the Holy Spirit has to agree with the Bible or you must assume that the spirit might not be so holy.
“I don't drink alcohol, not because I can find somewhere in the Bible that says I shouldn't, but because I have seen the potential it has to hurt others.”There are atheists who recognize the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex, so they abstain. There are Buddhists who are very nice people and are just as loving as can be. Semi-random question, what do you think about Mormonism?
Is Christian morality nothing more than “do no harm”? (and love... whatever that means... to you)?
“The Bible... is not a replacement for a relationship with Jesus.”A relationship with Jesus is not a replacement for the Bible. Once again, it’s not either or, it’s everything. With a lot of this kind of stuff it’s circular. Like, without the Bible you don’t even know about a Jesus to have a relationship with, without the relationship the Bible is just an old book, with the Bible you get to know Jesus better as your relationship builds so does your understanding of the Bible, as your understanding of the Bible grows, so does your intimate knowledge of Jesus, and so on. (And it’s not just those two things; there are many more “ingredients” that can be thrown into the circle.)
“You said that we cannot see from God's perspective. Why not?”Shoot, if you can actually see from God’s perspective then we should just hang on every single word that you say. If you ever reach the point where you can tell me the consequences of every action, the value of every spoken syllable, and all the intricacies of how matter, time and space relate to each other in our physical/spiritual world, then you will be as big as Jesus.
“My goal is to have such a deep relationship with God that I know exactly what He thinks about things without having to spend hours in Bible study”What’s your presupposition? Is it possible you taking your thoughts about what God thinks and sticking the Bible into that grid? Your thoughts about what God thinks has to line up with the entirety of Scripture.
And finally,
I’m pretty sure your OT command about women not adorning themselves is actually from the NT. 1 Tim 2:9-10.
I should be sleeping.
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