“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength.
“The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other command greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31
I am curious as to why God’s Word [aka Jesus] lists four specific commandments, and then lumps the other 6 of the 10 into “every other commandment.” Are those 4 the most common ones we break, or the ones most important to God? I don’t know, but He sums up all of the rest into a command to “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” That is the simply stated bottom line.
God knows us SO well….He knows that we tend to analyze, dissect, and complicate everything.
And we look for “loopholes” that will get us out of hot water.
“Love your neighbor as you love yourself” is as simple and basic as it gets. We all have a neighbor on a practical level. There’s always that “somebody” in our lives who is near enough to us that they can be an annoyance, irritation, or worse. Even if you live miles away from the nearest neighbor, there’s always someone in our lives.
Maybe God chose the “neighbor” to keep these primary Commandments real and practical in our lives. Not just “some nameless somebody out there” in our excuses. God makes it clear that He cares about how we practice LOVE in everyday life, someone right next to us. Up close. Maybe it’s even in the “neighboring room” at home.
God makes it as basic as it can get to obey His 10 Commandments…..LOVE the one nearest to us everyday, and measure how well you’re doing it by comparing that to how you love yourself…
Basic. Practical. All day long and through the night. Food. Water. Comfort. Rest. Friendship.
His Kindness and Mercy keeps it clear and simple in this complicated world we humans have created.
How are you doing?
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