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” Matthew 22:37-40
The greatest two commandments are keep the christian from focusing to much on himself and his own concerns. When we become self-absorbed, we become our own idol. We replace our love for God with self-love. Our love for God and his kingdom take a back seat to our own pleasures and desires. Our neighbor’s concerns are no longer a priority. What is it to love our neighbor like ourselves? Well…how do you love yourselves!? When we put our hearts and minds on our neighbors concerns…and give them what we would like to be given…that is loving your neighbor to the standard you love your self. Is that not the golden rule, do unto others as you would have it done unto yourself? Would not we want forgiveness for ourselves?….give it unto others. Would we want others to pray for us?..pray for others. In fact, my litmus test for self absorption is this…what do you spend the majority of your time praying about? What do you pray about first? Is it others? Or is it some desire? James says this…”Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your pleasures” (James 4:3). We frustrate our own prayers when we are self absorbed, because God will not honor selfishness. When God taught the disciples to pray, did he not say “OUR father, give US the daily bread, forgive US” Our prayer lives should model the fathers…it should be about US and not just “ME.” We are to “bear one anothers burdens.” Galatians 6:2. We must learn to take our neighbors concerns to God as if they were our own concerns.
Despite what the prosperity teachers are preaching, God is not in the business of blessing the saints so that we can show out to our enemies, friends, relatives, or co-workers. We don’t give with vain motives. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others more significant than yourselves.” God does not give us seed for our own vain glory. He is blesses us to be a blessing. He gives seed to the sower….so that we can sow in the lives of others. In return, God proises that those who sow generously will reap generously. II Corinthians 9:6. You will not lack, but have plenty extra to do the work of God.
As it is written: he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seeds to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in many expressions of thanks to God. II Corinthians 9:8-11
It’s never been about you. It’s about God’s gospel, God’s kingdom, and God’s people. In fact, How do we demonstrate the first and greatest commandment of loving God with all our hearts, minds, and soul? He says, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” John 21:15-17. If we truly love our father, the litmus test is this…we will evangelize! We will use the talents that he gave us to evangelize to his kingdom. Consider the parable of the talents in Luke 19. The king went away for a time and left his servants with 10 talents each to put to work until he returned. 1 servant produced 10 more, one produced 5 more, 1 servant buried his talent. And what did God do?…he took the talent from him and gave it to the one who produced ten. Let not God return to us to discover that we have buried our talent and done nothing for the kingdom of God!
Let’s talk about the final judgement when the Son of man comes in his glory. “Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For when I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came.” When the righteous asks when did we do these things, God will say, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Our ministry should always be to the least. If we love our father, we will give to the least. Our ministries should be for the least! Even Christ’s ministry was to the least. He said: The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to released the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. Luke 4:18
I have poured over the books of the prophets in the Old testament. God’s anger is always kindled against the proud and those who witheld justice from the poor–or those who oppressed the poor. His anger is kindled against those who selfishly pursue gain for themselves and overlook the widows and the fatherless. In fact, Jesus’s own brother James who likely knew him the most intimately said this, true religion acceptable to God is taking care of the widows and fatherless. James 1:27. I belive that the most defiled gospel, is the gospel of self. The mission should be this:
To loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. To share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter–when you see the naked to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own fles and blood…Then your light will break forth like the dawn…When you call the Lord will answer you.” Isaiah 58: 6-9
Our love for God is demonstrated in our love for other neighbors…especially the least among us. It is also demonstrated in our committment to sharing his gospel. May we not be so caught up in ministering to our ownselves that we forget our first love. May we not make other things and other people our first love and become to God like Hosea’s wife. Hosea 2:7, “She will chase after her lovers but will not catch them, she will look for them but not find them, Then she will say, I will go back to my husband as at first.” God used this analogy to show that his adulterous people will return to their first love–God himself! Chasing after idols and self preservation will get you no where. Christians must never forget their first love! Remember when you first God saved?! You were so excited about what you had found that you couldn’t wait to share the gospel with someone else. You prayed for the opportunity for God to use you. You stayed up at night reading the word. God comissions us to return to how we were formely. God says this:
I know your deeds, your hard work and your perserverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be aposteles but are not, and have found them false. You have perservered and endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from it’s place.
I will end with this…we are the light of the world. We are God’s lampstand. God says in Mark 4:19 “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on a stand.” Here God is saying that our life should be a lamp that helps people see God. What bowls have we allowed to dampen our light? Self-gain? Desires? Let us instead do good deeds unto men and make this our ultimate priority, so that we may gain glory for our father and not ourselves.
“Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16.
