The Big Two

 

 

In the twenty second chapter of, the first book of the four gospels, (Verses 36-40 to be exact), a learned man of Hebrew law approached Jesus and asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" Knowing that this was one of the many times the religious authorities would try to trip Him up, Jesus replied, in His very straight forward manner, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. This is the greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: Love your neighbor as yourself." He finished up by including that, "All the other commandments and all the demands of God's prophets are encapsulated within these two laws. Keep only these and you will find you are obeying all the others."

 

What a statment! It is absolutely amazing, baffling almost, that the whole Bible, all sixty six books (except for most of the historical narrative portions) can be summed up in those seven little lines. In a way, it's so simple and yet, at the same time, very complicated.

 

For as long as the Church (the entire historical Body Of Christ) has had possession of this knowledge, we have failed to completely grasp the total significance and power of these Biblical statements. Oh, for sure, we've known about them and treated them as doctrine. No doubt there are very few members, of any congregation, who can't cite chapter and verse. And yet, it is primarily head knowledge for most congregants. These two basic commandments have, pretty much, elluded the hearts of the Body of Christ.

 

The biggest stumbling blocks the church has yet to sidestep is the fact that these Big Two work in tandem. In order to truly love one-self we have to learn what it is to truly love God. The one just does not work without the other and we are compelled to follow the divine sequence: God first and then ourselves. It doesn't work any other way.

 

What will always snag us is our stubborn desire to figure things out for ourselves. Relying primarily on own understanding (mixed up with we may have been taught in our respective churches), we believe we know what it is to love God. With some definite assurance I can say, if a minister would ask, "Who here loves God?" 99.9% of them would raise their eager hands. Problem is, there are two psycological components working in the background. First there is that subtle "peer pressure"--nobody wants to feel left out. It's a kind of fear mixed with a wee bit of pride.

 

But, then you have those who firmly believe they do know what it is to love God and they just might have a good grasp of it all. The thing is, God will always have the last word. If we really want to know what it is to love we only need ask Him. And then comes the necessary trial and error phase where we learn from Him what it's all about. Gone are the tried and true Sunday School lessons. They are replaced by the solid rock of God reasoning.

 

Once we have the full knowledge of what it is to love God, then and only then, do we learn how to love ourselves and then others.  And when we learn how to love ourselves and others we will be able to see that most of the ills plaguing the world are present due the lack of the Big Two in the church. I strongly believe if we truly knew what it is to love there would be no racism, no recession, no war, etc. This will be the underlying premise for all future and subsequent entries.