here's the thing, post old-testament (which is, of course just as important as the old testament, just talkin biblical timeline-wise), it is pretty clear that Jesus pointed out his two biggies for those who desire to follow him:
commandment 1: love God
commandment 2: love others
put 'em together, God + others = Gothers
so, for a little background info:
Luke 10:25-28
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
Luke's version always makes me grin a bit, it's so straight forward that i just can't help but smile. the thing that is important to note is that this verse is focused on how to get eternal life, more on that later.
Matthew 22:35-40
35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew's version is a bit different, but i'm still a big fan (i like to use just abt as many versions of the bible as possible, can't help it :)). as it should, context comes into play: this is actually a prime example of Jesus being able to take one look at the little scheme the they're-not-phar-ya-sees had cooked up and blasting them right out of the water with a response that not only made their nasty little question sound silly, but also provided all of the rest of us with some life-long guidance, which is his two main commandments, love God, love others. -1 for the bad guys, +10 for Jesus. win!
i have begun to notice a growing trend in churches, one that originally confused me, then frustrated me, and now just makes me a bit sad. and that trend is that there is a very high focus (in some churches) on commandment number 2, and less of a focus on commandment number 1. now don't get me wrong, most churches still stick to their doctrine, the basic of "we love God", but it has become very blurry as to what this actually entails. and let's be honest, it is often easier in a seeker-sensitive church to put a specific focus on loving others (who we can see and interact with, and work towards bringing to faith) and put more of a general focus on loving God (who we not only cannot see, but poses an major unknown as to how exactly to love him, or what that even looks like on a daily basis). unfortunately, i have walked into some churches and been shown incredible love and acceptance, but did not experience any major direction toward who God is and how we can love him more, beyond what was mentioned as loving others. i think at times this may even be completely unintentional; just a church trying to teach christians what love is like. but in actuality, it is creating a very deep barrier, one that i fear will keep new christians from truly understanding what our lives and love should look like.
thus the Gothers conundrum. by my definition (and since this isn't an actual word, it's really the only definition), this means that a church or individual focuses more on loving others than it does on loving God, which automatically puts it at odds with both Matthew and Luke (as well as the rest of the bible, and reason for being a christian as whole). and lemme tell you, context doesn't fix this one.
now, back to the bible verses! in Luke's version, the conversation is specific (or at least the question is, maybe not the implications) to what we must do to get into heaven. i get that we need to love others, i truly believe it is a necessity. but here is the core of it - there are many people out there who love others and place their needs about their own, but they do not know God and according to the bible, because of that will not go to heaven (John 14:6). i also believe that there are people out there who love Jesus, but who are not super great at loving others, maybe they are working at it, and i think that is the most important part.
admittedly, i am no theologian (thank God for you guys, cuz if i was this post would be approximately 20 pages longer with a lot of little footnotes...), but i can't help but believe Jesus was trying to point out three very specific things in these verses:
1) Jesus is saying I am always first. Always. In your heart, in your head, in your life, no matter what, I AM first.
2) for the most part, we love ourselves, and minus the cranky days or those in which we know we're not a real great person, we seem to have a bit more understanding and forgiveness for ourselves (as opposed to others, who we might/do critique). now, i know i know, we get down on ourselves too, but just follow me here, you know your own excuses and are a heck of a lot nicer to your own psyche than you are (as a general rule) to every single person you come into contact with. i think Jesus was trying to point out: see how well you treat your body? See how you treat yourself? Make sure you are extending that same love and grace to others. i have said that you need to love me, because i first loved you, and now it's time to complete the cycle by you loving others just as much as you love yourself and me. "love your neighbor AS yourself"!
3) you need to obey both of these commandments, but they are NOT interchangable. though it's not directly stated in these verses, both the new and old testament are pretty clear that humans are full of fault, and are incapable of loving perfectly. we need Jesus to give us love so that we can truly extend it to others. if that is the basis for much of the bible (and therefore also these two verses), one could infer that you must FIRST love God in order to even be able to love others. instead I feel that some have taken it too far saying that if we don't love others we are not going to heaven or have failed miserably as a christian. well, i would sort of agree with the second part, but really, if you are truly loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, i don't think it's even possible for you to not love others because it's not coming from you, it's coming from Him - making that point pretty much null and void.
so what would this really look like? if you actually lived your life by these two commandments above all us? in order, God first always, others second. boy, if just one church took this challenge for a month, i think it would start a change that couldn't be stopped.
my heart is for Jesus, and because of that, my heart is for others. but it has to be in that order. if you take things out of that order you are not only stuck in the Gothers conundrum, but i would say you're more of an otherian, rather than a christian. please understand, this is not meant to offend, but simply to point out how far we have fallen in certain ways, and placed others (used in different settings, named as: neighbors, friends, family, the new hotness term is "community") above God. i see more energy put into trying to get people into church (or a small group, meal group, community group, etc etc) than is spent on their own personal relationships with Jesus, and i think that is just plain wrong. yes, your "community" is important, but community does not create a genuine relationship with Christ, even if you are doing all of these things in His name.
alright, so call me a hypocrite, cuz i am. but i am workin towards getting better. i am trying to stop doing so many activities, stop spending more time reaching out to others than i am spending time with Jesus. and using all of that extra time to invest specifically in some form of worship (that does not involve others). don't get me wrong, serving God by serving others is great, but that alone cannot sustain a relationship with God, there needs to be much much more.
i'm guessing i've lost approximately 95% of you throughout the course of this post since it is too theological for some and not nearly theological for others, but if you've made it this far, i just as one thing: ask yourself what your life would look like if you counter-acted the Gothers conundrum? even just for a week? just a thought...
No comments:
Post a Comment