February 1, 2010, Matthew 22

Key Verse:

"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 Propets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 22:37-40

Central Truth:
God's desire is really for us to keep it simple. Love Him, love others.

The majority of this chapter contains Jesus speaking to either the Pharisees (in vv. 1-22, 34-46) or the Sadducees (in vv. 23-33), both of whom were the religious leaders of this time. They spend most of this chapter questioning Jesus, trying to "trip him up" so to speak, about what is important and what are our duties as religious people. I love how Jesus doesn't get irritated or impatient with them. He also doesn't let them use him to put others down or to make themselves feel superior. He does quite the opposite!

Jesus, when asked "...which is the greatest commandment in the Law?", replied with the key verses above. This is what I love about Jesus! He longs for us to live in freedom, to experience true life, true freedom in Him! He says simply, "Love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment." WOW! How do we make it so complicated? We think we have to walk, talk and act a certain way. Jesus says, love the Lord with all your heart. He doesn't instruct us to clean up our lives, then come and worship Him. He wants us to love and worship Him, period. That is when I believe true life change can begin. When we focus on Him, He changes our hearts and, as a result, our behaviors, our relationships, our habits, and our life changes. But, when we try to make the change first by ourselves, we take our dependence off of Him. We should take encouragement from that - love Him; let Him sweep you off your feet and change your life.

"And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" Love your neighbor. Sounds simple; but are we really doing it? Love is an action verb. What are you doing to actively show others that you love them? God has placed each person around you in your life for a purpose. (Yes, even the unloveable ones.) What have you done to demonstrate the love of Christ to them? What about those He has placed in our lives that we might not even notice or think about? For example, there is a restaurant that Jerry and I frequent (every Sunday as a matter of fact). We have intentionally developed a relationship with "our" waiter there. We ask about his family, and we make sure to treat him with an abundance of kindness and respect, even giving a gift at Christmas. What a blessing it has been for us to develop this relationship! If we are not intentional about loving others, we won't do it. The fact is that we're all busy. Life is busy. We all have our own problems, but God has called us to love others. How are you doing at loving Him and loving others?

Spend some time today loving on Him - sing a worship song in your car, truly sing it from your heart, or tell Him throughout the day how much you love Him. Let Him direct you to who He wants you to love on for Him.