The Greatest Commandment is to LOVE!

Christ did not come to slay the Roman empire and free the Jewish people the way they all expected the messiah to come.  He brought a sword, but his sword was meant to pierce people's hearts.  His sword was against the principalities and powers that stand in the way of God's desire for our lives.

What is God's desire?  In an apparent effort to trick Jesus into giving an answer that would allow them to try him for heresy the Pharisees (Orthodox Jews) of that time asked him a simple question, "What is the greatest commandment?"  They figured if he said any one was greater than the other then they would catch him being inconsistent in his stand.  His response shocked the world and turned the religious establishments of the time upside down.  "The greatest Commandment is to Love God, and the second is to love your neighbor.  All the other rules and laws were made for this."

I could only imagine the jaws of the Pharisees dropping when they realized that what he was saying was indisputable.  In two quick sentences he had turned everything they believed upside down.  Love?  That's it?  That's what all this is for?

You see, the Pharisees had made a career out of using the laws to do the exact opposite.  They held their noses over people because they obeyed all of God's laws, and felt themselves to be better than others.  Then they walked around accusing others for all the sins they were committing in order to wield power over them. This is not unlike many christian churches have done on multiple occasions throughout it's history even after Christ.

Even today I think MANY Christians miss the point completely.  All the pride and greed and lust running rampant through their churches and what do they focus on?  Gay marriage.  Really?  So two people who LOVE each other deeply enough to want to commit their lives to each other and the church decides to go the path of hatred?  And don't try to argue it isn't hatred, because there are many other sins going on right under their noses, yet they choose this "supposed" sin to latch onto.  So much so that some churches would no longer allow boy scouts to hold meetings in their churches because they allow gays to be involved.

Does Christ want us to follow the laws?  The answer to that is complicated.  The laws were never meant to be set in stone.  They were meant to be guidebooks to help us along the way so we could better love one another and receive the greatest amount of pleasure out of life.

Given this vantage point, I no longer measure right and wrong based on a rulebook.  I don't wear a WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) bracelet.  I ask myself two simple questions.  Does this stand in the way of my ability to love God?  Is this in any way unloving towards my fellow man or woman, or to myself?  That's it!  I realize this would be considered quite controversial in the church.  They want things to be much more complicated than that.  They want you to see all these rules and guidelines and be overwhelmed by them so you will see your need for a savior.

Personally, I don't need a set of rules to let me know how selfish, prideful, etc I can be.  I know I need the blood of Jesus to wipe away my sinful heart, and I know I need Christ in my life to help me work on changing those things in my heart.