{"id":4438,"date":"2017-10-24T19:14:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/?p=4438"},"modified":"2017-10-24T19:14:56","modified_gmt":"2017-10-24T19:14:56","slug":"not-one-command-but-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/not-one-command-but-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Not One Command but Two"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ten<\/a>
ten biblical precepts in hebrew to the entrance to the tomb of King David in Jerusalem, Israel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
October 23, 2011<\/h5>\n

Matthew 22:34-40<\/h3>\n

There is a peculiar twist in today\u2019s gospel, and it is intentional.\u00a0 When one of the teachers of the law asks Jesus, \u201cWhich is the greatest commandment?\u201d he poses the most important question that a Jew could ask.\u00a0 For Jews of the first century, like Jesus and the teacher who questioned him, saw in the law the revelation of God\u2019s will.\u00a0 To know the most important commandment of the law, then, was to know what was most important to God and also to discover what was the secret of living. Here is where the twist comes in.\u00a0 When Jesus is asked to give one commandment, he gives two instead: we are to love the Lord God with all of our hearts, and that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.\u00a0 Giving two commandments instead of one is intentional.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 point is that these two commandments are actually one\u2014like two sides of the same coin, like two hands working together, like the way that the sun is both light and heat.<\/p>\n

So what is most important to God? What is the secret of living? It is to know that God is a God of love and that we are asked to love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, and with all of our mind\u00a0and\u00a0to know that if our love of God is to be real, then it must be expressed in our love for others.\u00a0 This is the great double commandment of Jesus. To say that we love God is to commit ourselves to love others, and in our love of others, we express our love for God.\u00a0 This great commandment of Jesus is at the heart of Christianity. It has always been so.<\/p>\n

I want to share with you a remarkable quotation that was written by a Greek philosopher living in Athens in 125 C.E.\u2014that is about a hundred years after Jesus\u2019 death. His name was Aristides. He was not a Christian. But he wrote a letter to the emperor Hadrian describing the Christians in the city of Athens.\u00a0 His remarkable letter has come down to us.\u00a0 Here is what Aristides says:<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians love one another.\u00a0 They never fail to help widows.\u00a0 They save orphans from those who would hurt them.\u00a0 If one of them has something, he gives freely to the one who has nothing without boasting.\u00a0 If they see a stranger, Christians take him home and are happy as though he were a real brother.\u00a0 And if they hear that one of them is in jail or persecuted for professing the name of their redeemer, they all give him what he needs and, if it is possible to redeem him, they set him free.\u00a0 And if there is among them any poor or naked, if they have no spare food, they fast for two or three days in order to supply the needy. Truly, this is a new people and there is something divine in them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aristides was able to see something divine in the Christians living in Athens, because he saw how they loved others.<\/p>\n

What about us?\u00a0 We\u2019re here today because we believe in God. We come together today to show our love of God.\u00a0 This is good, but when we leave this church, is our love of God visible? Can others see something divine in us?\u00a0 If you want to know, ask your neighbors.\u00a0 Ask your neighbors how they see you.\u00a0 Would they say,\u00a0 \u201cMrs. Brown? Oh, she has a beautiful yard. She is a wonderful cook.\u201d\u00a0 Or would they say, \u201cShe\u2019s somebody who would welcome a stranger, who would never judge anyone by their condition or the color of their skin.\u201d\u00a0 Ask the people you work with how they see you. Would they say, \u201cOh, Mr. Farmer? He\u2019s smart. He\u2019s a climber. He\u2019s very efficient.\u201d Or would they say, \u201cHe\u2019s a person I can trust. He\u2019s a person who gives others a fair shake. He cares for people more than money.\u201d\u00a0 Ask your friends.\u00a0 Would they say, \u201cJoey? Oh Joey\u2019s a good athlete. He\u2019s the life of the party. You always have fun with Joey.\u201d Or would they say, \u201cJoey is someone you can count on.\u00a0 He\u2019ll give you his time if you\u2019re in trouble. He\u2019ll never tear down another person.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to see the divine in us people must see our love of others.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 great commandment is a double commandment. Each part is essential.\u00a0 To say that we love God and not to love others is following only half the commandment.\u00a0 And following half the commandment is not following the commandment at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Jesus is asked to give one commandment, he gives two instead. This is intentional, because two commandments are actually one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5879,"featured_media":4440,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/files\/2017\/10\/commandments.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buildingontheword.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}