MATTHEW 22:34-40 – But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

THEME OF THE DAY: LIFE IS ALL ABOUT TWO THINGS AND NEITHER IS US.  It’s a wordy title for today’s nugget but not without meaningful substance worthy of a little reflection.  What is life all about if reduced to two things and neither is us?  The answer stands out loud and clear in today’s scripture in two commandments beginning with the great and first commandment followed by a second which is like it.

These commandments are founded on love, fueled by love, shown by love, and is what God requires of His children.  We are under obligation to obey these commands.  And we will know if we rightly understand the Gospel and what God has done for us and to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus if we see our obligation is that of love, and we seize obedience as a privilege we get to do, not a burden we have to do.  Remember what the Apostle John said of the Lord’s commandments – For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome (1 John 5:3). But we need to dig a little deeper in our hearts to examine if these two things love for God and love for others are truly manifested in our lives.  Just imagine if every person in our churches watched us, unnoticed, for seven days, twenty-four hours a day. Would they walk away saying, “There is a Christian who knows what life is all about and it shows by how they live.  And how do they live?

First, obeying the Great Commandment to love God with all their heart, soul, and mind.  This demands active obedience to specific commands – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). The true Christian should see a natural progression of obedience to God’s commands, and particularly, the many one another commands.  It is very easy to just “coast” in a moral life that doesn’t necessarily mean the Christian life.  Be on guard to distinguish to live the latter, not the former and be self-deceived – But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:22-25).

Another mark in Christians knowing and living life is about two things and not themselves is the affirmation that the Apostle Paul would give in his letter to the Philippians – Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4). Notice that Paul doesn’t say “neglect self-interests” but don’t be absorbed with them at the neglect of others.

Still yet another application is one of our spiritual health. The time we give to the Lord’s interests and the interests of others over self-interests accurately measures our spiritual condition. A subtle “child in the sinful family of pride” is selfishness manifested by a self-centered, self-absorbed, and self-focused life oblivious to and neglecting the Great Commandments of loving God and our neighbors which requires a selfless life, not a selfish life.

PRAYER: “Father, forgive me for the too many times I am more concerned about me than You and others.”

QUOTE: “The time we give to the interests of the Lord and others over ourselves is a true assessment of our spirituality.”

In the affection of Christ Jesus,

Pastor Jim