Love God, Love People

In Matthew 22 a group of Pharisees came and asked Jesus a seemingly simple question, "Which commandment is the greatest commandment?" However, the question was designed to trap Jesus, for whatever commandment he chose as the greatest he would certainly be leaving something out that was equally as important. His response was brilliant: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." This is a amazing statement, because not only did he clearly and succinctly answer their faux question, but he also made a fantastic statement about the law and the Old Testament. He said that every law could be summed up in on
e of two categories, either loving God or loving people. It makes perfect sense too if you think about it. Every sin you commit is either, and often both simultaneously, not loving God or not loving someone else. If you love God and your neighbor you wouldn't lie, steal, cheat, adulterate, idolize, and the list goes on.

In fact our whole purpose for being here on earth is to love God and love the people he created. That sums it up. It's simple yet extremely difficult at the same time. So difficult that when this same interaction between the Pharisees and Jesus was recounted by the Apostle Luke in his gospel, one of the Pharisees tried to find a loophole. He asked, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29) I guess he realized just how crazy it was to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus responded by telling the often told story of the Good Samaritan who helped a Jewish man who was beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. Not only did the Samaritan help the man, but the man was also passed by two devout Jewish religious leaders and was not helped by them. Now you have to understand that the Samaritans were half-breed Jews and they had different religious practices than the regular Jews, so they literally hated each other. So for Jesus to make the good guy, who was helping his neighbor, a Samaritan was telling the Pharisee who asked the question that he was supposed to love everyone, even and more especially the people he didn't like. I'm sure the Pharisee went away unhappy with Jesus' answer, because it wasn't what he wanted to hear. What about you? How are you at putting into practice the greatest commandments, love God and love others? Are you loving everyone like you would want to be loved? Are you loving God by the way you live your life?