The
last item in yesterday’s post raises a question. If there was greater interest in faith, why was
there an increase in immorality? There are
many answers. For example, faith doesn’t
operate on the basis of polls. Further,
Christianity is not a “religious interest.”
Who knows the definition of religious
interest or immorality? I doubt we could get an accurate view today
given the fact that much of what the Bible considers immoral is not immoral in
our society.
But
it still gives us reason to ponder the connection. In our culture where we want things fast we
are not surprised to see what we might call “instant Christianity,” the kind of
Christian lifestyle that can come quickly through simple, 1-2-3 step
procedures. We might also see a lot of
“candy-coated Christianity,” a kind of Christian lifestyle that just isn’t that
much different than the life out of which we were supposed to have been saved.
One
way of looking at the essence of Christianity is through the “greatest
commandments.” In the Epistles the
command to love your neighbor as yourself
is the sum of all other laws (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14; James 2:8). In each of these contexts the issue is how we
treat one another and thus the mention of the second command makes sense. But as you note in today’s passage, there
were two commands: to love God and to love your neighbor. Let us think about these.
First, look at two comments Jesus made.
·
In v34 He told the scribe, you are not far from the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the realm in which God
rules. It is always a spiritual kingdom,
and will also be synonymous with an earthly kingdom in the reign of Christ. What this tells us is that these commands
deal with God’s kingdom. Our response to
the commands tells us if we are or are not in the kingdom of God. Why was the man only not far from the Kingdom?
Because he answered wisely, but the issue is not profession but
obedience.
·
In v31 Jesus said there is no other commandment greater than these. This is a comparative statement: there are
many others commands but these are most important. We often take things of lesser importance and
elevate them over what has greater importance.
If you consider the religious leaders of the day, which generally
included the scribes and Pharisees, they were good at this. From Jesus condemnation of them in Matt. 23
consider how they elevated …
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23:1-4: theory over practice
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23:16-22: formulas over grace
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23:5-12: man-pleasing over God-pleasing
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23:23-24: letter over spirit (detail over heart attitude)
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23:13-14: finger-pointing over self-examination
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23:25-28: externals over internals
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23:15: conversion over growth
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23:29-36: words over actions
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The
Christian life is very much concerned with priorities.
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