Read the following passages: 2 Corinthians 11:3, ”
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
and Matthew 22: 36-40, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘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. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
What are these passages saying? What do these verses teach me about following Jesus?
In Matthew 22:36-40, how did Jesus summarize the commands of God? He said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and them to love our neighbor as yourself. All of the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments. In the book of Corinthians, the believers couldn’t or wouldn’t get along with one another. There were internal struggles and strife amongst them. This was causing division in their efforts to settle on the correct doctrines that would make them more faithful in following Jesus. Paul encouraged them as a parent would a child to make things not so complicated and go back to the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus.
Does your life reflect a simple and pure relationship with Jesus? If no, why not?
What is it in your life that is hard to make it simple and pure? Is it a superficial system? Is it the control? It is easier to measure our performance. It is easy to excel in our performance and feel good about ourselves. It is easy to compare ourselves to others and where they are at. However, what Jesus is telling us to do, I won’t sugar coat it. It is hard to love God and love others. Part of this is our flesh and the other part is, well, people are hard to love. We get hurt or disappointed in the human race and want to protect ourselves from that. As for our flesh, we as humans want things done our way. We don’t want it to always be about God and His ways. This is where these to commandments in the simplicity and purity, can also be hard.
IF we want to be followers of Christ, though; we have to follow these two simple and pure commands. Love God and love others inside and outside of the church. It does not mean that we love them from a distance. It means daily spending time with our Triune God and getting to know how wonderful He is. It is being intentional with God and our relationship with one another. HE is intentional in every aspect of us. Why can’t we return our intentions to Him. As for the others, the human race, well the ones that are easy to love, are easy to love. Then we have the ones that are hard for us to love. It could be they have hurt us, we don’t agree on subject matters, we don’t like how they act, we have a personality clash. These are all legit reasons why it is hard to love others. It is also an excuse to disobey God when he tells us to love our neighbor. Because it just isn’t the good people, it is the bad people – the hurting, the lost, the criminals. We have to be fully intentional about loving others. Yes, with some we do have to use caution, have boundaries. However, for the list of the reasons mentioned above, we have to be intentional of really loving them as Jesus loves us. You don’t have to let them into your inner life, but you can love them by letting the relationship be about them. Let the Holy Spirit lead you where to go. He will protect you.
Where have you lost the simplicity and purity of what it means to follow Jesus?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving us. THank you for your simplicity and purity in loving God and loving others. I pray that we will rely on you to help us to do this.
In Jesus Name
Amen
