Matthew 20:34-40
34 When the Pharisees heard how Jesus had bested
the Sadducees, they gathered their forces for an assault. 35 One of their
religion scholars spoke for them, posing a question they hoped would show him
up: 36 "Teacher, which command in God's Law is the most important?"
37 Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer
and intelligence.' 38 This is the most important, the first on any list. 39 But
there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as well as you love
yourself.' 40 These two commands are pegs; everything in God's Law and the
Prophets hangs from them."
Food for Thought
We may well say that here Jesus laid down the
complete definition of religion.
(i) Religion consists in loving God.
It means that to God we must give a total love, a
love which dominates our emotions, a love which directs our thoughts, and a
love which is the dynamic of our actions. All religion starts with the love
which is total commitment of life to God.
(ii) Religion consists in loving our neighbour.
It means that our love for God must issue in love
for men. But it is to be noted in which order the commandments come; it is love
of God first, and love of man second. Why? Well, because it is only when we
love God that man becomes lovable. The Biblical teaching is that man, every man
and every woman, is made in the image of God (Gen.1:26-27). It is for that
reason that man is lovable. However, the first man to love is YOU. Sometimes we
forget this basic truth. Let's look again at Jesus' answer:
Jesus said, "'Love the Lord your God with all
your passion and prayer and intelligence.' This is the most important, the
first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: 'Love others as
well as you love yourself.'"
Do you notice that the verb "love" appears
three times? There is love of God, love of others, and love of yourself. For
Jesus, true love must express itself in three dimensions. These three
dimensions are (a) love of God, (b) love of neighbour, and (c) love of oneself.
The first two are positively commanded; the last one is not commanded but
presumed to be the basis of all loving. The commandment to love your neighbour
as yourself presumes that you love yourself.
No one gives what they don't have! You can't give
love to others if you hate yourself; you can't be nice to others when you have
a bad day. Do you realize that whenever you have a bad day, you are nasty to
people? You can't smile at people when you're sad. But, the day you're happy,
you'll treat everybody nicely. We don't shout at people when we are happy. In
other words, you treat others in as much as you are yourself; you love others
in as much as you love yourself. Jesus is saying, Be happy and everybody
around you will be happy; and when everybody is happy, God is happy too.
So, in theory, love of God comes first, then
neighbour, then self. But in practice, love of self is first, then of
neighbour, then of God. When we love ourselves we will love our neighbour, and
when we love neighbour we love God.
1Jo 4:20-21
20 If anyone boasts, "I love God," and
goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a
liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't
see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving
people (and loving people presupposes loving ourselves).
No comments:
Post a Comment