The Greatest Commandment, Jesus answered is two:
You shall love the Lord thy God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Mat 25:37-40)
That passage reveals that the Law
of God remains in effect. For those who fail to understand the Law, Jesus
operationalized it for them; it is to love Him and to love others — your
neighbors — or other citizens of the world. How is anyone able to do commands;
not by works, but by the concept of lovingkindness — agape-type love…
goodwill.
The will is a mental faculty.
Mental work is more ergonomic than manual tasks. The work of loving is not what
a person does but how he or she thinks. The heaviest work that
Christians are to do is to control their thoughts.
The Greatest Commandment was
numbered “first” and “second” by Jesus. Jesus was asked which one. He answered
with two. Was He confused? Could He count? No, He was not, and yes He could
count! He was making a point. Check this out from the parable of the sheep and
goats:
Jesus
said, “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one
of the least of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you did for Me.’” (Mat 25:40)
Jesus told them what they had done for Him:
“For I was hungry and you gave Me something to
eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you
invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked
after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’” (Mat 25:35-36)
In the key verse above (verse
40), Jesus explained to them how that was done, albeit even unwittingly. Many
of them had done those things for other Christians who Jesus called His “brothers
and sisters.” Note that it was the family of Jesus for whom they did things;
not the family of the Devil — the lost sheep, so to speak. Not that helping the
lost is to be discouraged but that Jesus was encouraging Christians to take
care of their own. Their hearts had been tenderized by becoming new creatures
in Christ.
In psychological terms, doing good
things for others is prosocial behavior — empathy. Jesus was born to serve
mankind. Like any good master, Jesus mastered that behavior. To serve others,
He enlisted others to serve with Him. By serving brothers and sisters of Jesus that
is serving others because Christians serve with Jesus. It takes the load off
the Master when the servant assists!
Jesus, in the key verse, revealed
how two commands are one: His brethren love Him by loving others. They are
empathetic for Jesus by having empathy for others. However, there must be right
reasons — you must serve others for the glory of God and not for self-glorification.
You must be empathetic, not guilty of transference… by exalting yourselves by helping
others. Those, like the rich ruler of Luke chapter eighteen who had done good
things, not for the glory of God, but because it was the humane thing to do. It
was not done to elevate God but to elevate others, in effect, the ruler was
magnifying himself for the things that he had done.
Note from the key verse that
empathy is directional. Jesus can be loved by doing good for others,
transferring the glory to Him, but doing good things for Jesus without doing so
for others is futile.
Many otherwise wicked people often do good things. Many renowned philanthropists have done good things for needy people. However, who gets their names on the buildings and statues? Not Jesus for sure. It is them that get the glory. Recognition is getting the reward here and now. Good things must be done without fanfare and in secrecy to magnify God, to wit:
Take heed that you do
not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise, you have no reward of
your Father which is in heaven. Therefore, when thou do your alms, do not sound
a trumpet before yourself, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the
streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, “They have
their reward.” But when you do alms, let not your left hand know what your
right hand does. (Mat 6:1-3)
Doing those good things in secret
is genuine empathy. ‘Empathy’ is feeling the pain and distress of others, and
doing things for others that you would want others to do for you. It is the ‘Golden
Rule’ in operation. It is sorrow for others because you know their sorrow.
The rich ruler had done good
things and reviewed how he had honored the last tenets of the Ten Commandments.
However, what had he done for God? He never mentioned that at all, so the man
was not magnifying God but glorifying himself.
The way to feed those who are
hungry and unclothed, and so forth, is to do so for the glory of God.
Charity should be an unknown
work. Who is not human? Have we all not done things that are good to make a
name for ourselves? It should not be so hard work to keep our almsgiving and
such a secret.
One church that I attended had a
donor pay off the mortgage. His or her name remain to this day unknown. Nobody
got the glory except Jesus. Jesus did not have His valor stolen.
Another church received a large
grant from the estate of a person who was identified — a person known to the
church. That person, and maybe even the family, may get the glory.
In all things we do, it should
not be broadcast.
For instance, a person I know donated
$500 to his church without fanfare. The preacher asked the congregation to be
generous, naming both himself and the other person. Both got their reward right
then in the form of recognition. It was them that made a name for themselves,
leaving out Jesus who laid it on the man’s heart.
In summary, there is one
Commandment — to love — and Jesus made it clear that true love for Him can be demonstrated
by loving others. Therefore, it is not so much two commandments but one in two
manners of accomplishing the same objective, and that is to magnify Jesus.
(picture credit; Social Media Ministries)
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