Our Love Of People

Our Love Of People

What is the most important commandment? Well, according to Matthew 22 NKJV

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

So, on paper, being a Christian is not that difficult. In practice, well, now that’s altogether a different story.

Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind should come naturally and we should be able to love God as easily as we love our children, our parents or our spouse. While, at times, we get upset with one of these people it doesn’t detract from our love for them, in fact, a lot of times it strengthens our love and our relationship.

Enter Sin

Men and women drink [sin] essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that, while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the true from the false. Source

By replacing the word “alcohol” with “sin” the remainder of these two statements apply to you, me and everyone else. If a person begins living a sin-filled life the illusions become reality and God is absolutely pushed out of the picture. The person begins running on self will and loving anything or anyone, other than the self, becomes the norm. Loving God with all our heart, soul and mind is no longer possible as the person becomes their on god. Self centered, self serving and selfish are the order of the day.

Being isolated for the past three weeks because the Chinese bat-stew flu coronavirus has had a much longer impact on some. Having long established routines completely uprooted does something to a person. When most days of the week are filled with hours upon hours serving God and serving God’s children comes to 100% stop, well, life begins looking a lot different. The realization of how important serving others comes into focus, the reality of God working in our lives comes into focus and the love of God is easily overlooked since God, over time, becomes a smaller and smaller part of the daily routine. Social distancing can impact a lot of situations and bring other situations to a grinding halt. It doesn’t have to be this way and we don’t have to forget about other people nor push God aside. Simply hold onto the first and great commandment while allowing God to introduce creative and useful ways to implement.

Matthew 24 NKJV

45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?
46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.
47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.
48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’
49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards,
50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of,
51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.