If the original Shema (the basis for the Greatest Commandment) was written at the end of the Exodus (maybe the mid-1,400's BC) then Jesus would have spoken the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-34) almost 1,500 years later. The words are almost identical and express the unity and uniqueness of God (The Lord your God is one ... God alone) and that we are commanded to love God with our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength (all we have and all we are). Jesus adds that we are to also love other people as we love ourselves. He concludes that knowing and grasping (by following) this truth bring us 1) close to the kingdom of God and 2) into compliance with the totality of the commandments. WOW! What a statement to a people who had never been able to get even close. How do we appropriate this truth?
First, lets state what Jesus is not saying. He is not saying that we are to go back to the Hebrew law, the sacrificial system or the Jewish tradition. We are specifically and repeatedly told that this is not Jesus' desire or direction. He is not saying that we should love God by loving the Bible, the Torah or even Scripture, though we should love and seek the author. He is calling us to a love relationship with God and with other people ... a relationship that is reflective of that taught, modeled and lived-out by Jesus.
He IS saying one other thing that is woven throughout the Gospels and throughout the writings of the New Covenant (the New Testament). Jesus is telling us that those who follow Him belong to a different kingdom with a different way of doing life. The kingdom of the world is confused and confounded by the presence of economic, religious, political, social and false kingdoms. Each of these kingdoms have a ruler over them. Respectively these would be money, power structures, kings/presidents/dictators, celebrities, and other humanly appointed authorities. In His kingdom, the ruler is God (in the form of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and He has chosen His people to be the agents of this kingdom here on this earth. Our only power and authority comes from Him and our only allegiance is to Him. Herein lies what I believe is the primary reason the Church seems so powerless in the world and so ineffective in bringing God's kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven." We, according to Dr. Tony Evans, seem to believe that we can use worldly keys to unlock the doors of God's kingdom. But God's keys are only activated for people who are sold out to His authority and to kingdom ways ... like loving God in completeness and loving people that seem unlovable ... people like us. This is the greatest commandment because (I believe) it is the greatest key to God's kingdom ... so great that if we sacrificially and submissively apply this commandment I believe our lives, our church, our families and even our country will be forever altered ... toward God's will. For in applying this commandment we become moved by God from the superficial to the spiritual and from the false to the real. I don't know about you but I'm down with a life of God's power, God's Spirit and God's truth. How about you?
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