In the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 22, verses 35 to 40, a Pharisee lawyer questions Jesus, to test him, asking "Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?"
Jesus answered from Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall 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. Then he went on to say, "And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (See Leviticus 19:18)
Then Jesus summed up their significance by saying, "On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
I remember a certain young man who came to me asking about what he would need to do to be a Christian? He had been thinking about all the things that he shouldn't do, about things he would have to give up, and about some things that he didn't really want to give up, like smoking cigarettes. I was trying to get him to focus on his devotion to God through Christ, his trust in God's grace for salvation through Christ, and the impetus to new behavior which flows from that relationship of being set right with God through faith. Then he brought up the verses about the greatest commandments. I've heard, he said, that all I have to do is love God with all my heart, and to love my neighbor as myself, and I'm OK. Is that right?
He seemed to be assuming that loving God and neighbor was only a mental attitude, and that if he just thought affectionate thoughts toward God and about others he could keep right on following some of the vices that he didn't want to give up. He wasn't seeming to fathom that if you love God with everything you are, and if you care about your neighbor as you care about yourself, you will no longer be content to live your life in a slovenly manner, or to hang on to destructive behaviors, as though you still need them to be happy. I tried to show him that when you find something really good, something which really sets things right in your heart, it is not like sacrificing a desirable thing when you give up destructive indulgences, but like finally being freed from the jaws of an injurious trap that has a hold on you. After the one conversation I never saw the young man again. I can only hope that I may have planted a seed that could later grow and help him to a healthy and whole life.
Human beings do so many things in the effort to convince themselves that they are living a worthwhile life. Sometimes the feeling is that if I can be more financially successful than most of my acquaintances, my life will be worth while. Or the thought may be that if I can win the lottery or the Publishers Sweepstakes, so that I don't have to work at disagreeable jobs anymore, then my life will be worth while. Advertising constantly appeals to this motive, presenting products that will solve the problems that keep us from feeling that things are going well in our lives. If we only have the right vehicle, if we only have the right impressive clothing, or jewelry, or makup, or the right house, or the right social contacts, or the right smart phone, or the right TV data service, or if we are attractive to the opposite sex, then we are told we can feel that our life is worthwhile. Buying the right truck is supposed to make you feel more masculine, more like a real man, supposedly more like your real self. I notice that much of the SPAM that comes through the email systems is trying to tell us if we will only use their pills, or buy their fake luxury watches, or buy into their latest skyrocketing stock tip, then we can feel that our life is worthwhile.
The focus is not on your integrity, or on your genuineness, but on how you look, on how you come across to people who see you, how you take advantage of others, how you fool people to your advantage. In other words, here is how to con people and make yourself into an impressive and successful fake.
In the last several verses of First Timothy we see these things on living a worthwhile life: "As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous, thus laying up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed" (I Tim. 6:17-19).
I once heard Jesus's words on the great commandments described as meaning, Love the Lord first, other people second, and yourself last. No, No! Love the Lord with all you are, and in the Lord's love care about yourself as God cares about you, and care about your family and other people with the love and caring with which the Lord fills your heart and life! These are the relationships that make life real, fulfilling, genuine and worthwhile!
•••
Editor's note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at [email protected], or call 621-1621.
Religion on 01/29/2014