Man Class 2

Last night we were looking at Matthew 22: 37 - 40. Jesus says the two greatest commandments are to love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. The teacher for the evening used an analogy of the laws being arranged on an archery target, and these two right in the center. If we aim for those two, and hit those two, then we capture the rest of them. Wow. I like that. I can visualize that.

So the question came up, "why do we focus on stuff like worship, color of the carpet, you hurt my feelings, who is qualified to teach a class, etc.? Why don't we focus on these 2?" The answer: I like check lists. The "Laws" are a checklist. Went to church? check. Are you married? check. Love your mom and dad? check. Did you pray 3 times today? check. Did you call 5 Christians? check. Have you taught a class this year? check. Did you give more than 10% Sunday? check....

But not only is it checklists, but I think if we are honest, it is also difficult for us to put people first. And by people, I also include God. Loving God, and loving others as yourself sounds easy. And I like the idea that if I only follow two rules, I am going to be OK. But if you think about it, Those two rules encompass every single decision you can ever make. "How is this going to glorify God? She needs a couple of dollars and I got 30 in my pocket, but she might spend it on booze. I know I should read my bible, but the game is on, and these two teams are the biggest rivalry.... I didn't eat out that much on my business trip and the company doesn't require receipts.... but....." All of a sudden what seemed like something relatively easy becomes infinitely more difficult. At least from a human perspective.

Reality is, God makes it real easy. God did everything for us by sacrficing His son for us. Our focus should be doing things out of love and gratitude for what God did. I should want to help others, because Jesus died for me. I should want to do my best at work, because Jesus died for me. I should want to treat my wife with respect, because Jesus died for me. All those things in my life, and your life that are "have tos", should be "want tos". Being a Christian becomes infinitely easy when we put other people first.