Week 9 – The Great Commandment
Where is
your focus? Did God open doors for you
to share the gospel this week?
We and our
abilities are nothing in comparison to the Almighty. In the eternal perspective, the things we do on a day to
day basis are trivial. Did God impress
on you tasks of eternal significance this week?
Did you take advantage of them?
Mark 12:28-34
(NASB)
28
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had
answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29
Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE
LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ 31
The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no
other commandment greater than these.” 32 The scribe said to Him,
“Right, Teacher; You have truly stated that HE IS ONE, AND THERE IS NO ONE ELSE
BESIDES HIM; 33 AND TO LOVE HIM WITH ALL THE HEART AND WITH ALL THE
UNDERSTANDING AND WITH ALL THE STRENGTH, AND TO LOVE ONE’S NEIGHBOR AS HIMSELF,
is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 When Jesus
saw that he had answered intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from
the kingdom of God.” After that, no one would venture to ask Him any more
questions.
Yes, the Christian
life can be boiled down to 2 things. 1) Love
God and 2) Love people.
It seems so simple, doesn’t it?
But there is a great mystery for us.
John, in 1 John 4:7-8, declares to us that God is love, and that without knowing Him, we cannot love. We don’t know what love is until we know
God. As simple as this 2-point
revelation of the Christian life is, we don’t know how to love others
and we can’t love God, until we know God. In order to know God, we must study
His word which is what He has made known to us through the Bible.
Loving God requires strict obedience to God’s desires. Jesus states in John 15:13-14, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” Jesus says that the greatest love is demonstrated by sacrificing yourself for your friends. He goes on to say, I consider you my friends if you keep my commandments. Jesus was not stating that salvation will come by works instead of grace. Jesus’ words are ‘I will demonstrate My love for you by dying for you; you demonstrate your love for Me by obeying Me.’ How can we know God’s commandments? We must study them. As the Psalmist says, “I will delight in Your commandments, which I love,” Psalm 119:47.
Love
People
What does it mean to love somebody? To define “love for God” is easy because He
is all-knowing and always perfect. It
just means that I have to willingly submit myself to be obedient to everything
He says. People, on the other hand, are
not all-knowing and are never perfect.
What is love? Returning to 1 John
4:10, John states, “In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Love is sacrifice for the
eternal restoration of others. How do
you love people? Fanny Crosby’s hymn,
“Rescue the Perishing” may be as good an instructional guide as any.
Week 9 Daily Readings
Monday
Monday
Read Deuteronomy 10:12-22. What does Moses state that God desires of us in verses 12-13. His
instruction continues in verse 16, ‘circumcise your heart.’ What does this mean? Loving God requires a heart change. This passage shows us that even God's chosen people were prone to racism classism, and superiority from early on in history. There is no place for such attitudes in Christianity. Furthermore, Moses describes for us what our
attitudes should be toward others in verses 17-22. You can evaluate your love for God by
assessing your love for others. What is
your attitude toward the needy and foreigners?
Tuesday
Read Deuteronomy 11. Moses continues (from yesterday’s
reading) describing how God has loved His people, as well as how and why His
people should return that love. Verse 16
says, “Beware that your hearts are not deceived…” Have you ever been deceived? In general, deception occurs when we fail to
take into account the truth. Someone
misleads us with half-truths that sound good.
Moses gives express advice on how to avoid being deceived in verses
18-20. Do you love God enough to study,
meditate, and memorize His words?
Wednesday
Read James 2:1-13. James was writing to believers. Just as in the passage from Deuteronomy 10,
God declares that we are to love all people regardless of social status. James clearly indicts the so-called Christian who shows respect for one
person over another. Ultimately, the
soul of man is invaluable; remember we were not redeemed by corruptible things
such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ (see 1 Peter
1:15-19). If God esteemed all men and
women so highly that He was willing to sacrifice His own life, then we also
ought to value others as highly as did He.
Thursday
Read Mark 10:17-31. This encounter between a young rich
man and Jesus is interesting for various reasons, but pay attention
specifically to the first part of verse 21, “Jesus loved him.” The rest of the story doesn’t depict Jesus
rescuing the young man from himself, but still Jesus loved him. Love speaks the truth. Jesus confronted the man’s idol worship (his
stuff). If you really love someone, you
must be willing to tell them the truth at all cost. A person’s eternal destiny is far more
important than an earthly friendship.
Friday
Read 1 Corinthians 13. These words were not intended to be
relegated to weddings alone. These words
were written to believers to describe how we ought to live. As believers, we are to desire the salvation
of all people for God’s glory. Godliness
is not a competition. It doesn’t matter
if I or you do the work, God gets the credit.
Paul rhetorically asks, “Who is Apollos and who is Paul?” in 1 Corinthians
3:1-9 as he demonstrates the very words he writes in chapter 13.
“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous;
love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does
not seek its own, is not provoked,
does not take into account a wrong
suffered, does not rejoice in
unrighteousness, but rejoices with
the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes
all things, endures all things.”
