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Here I Am, Send Me
The two commandments (actually one)
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[July
11, 2007]
Ya, I know, it's supposed to be the Ten
Commandments. And yes, I have read Exodus 20:3-17 and I have seen
the movie with Charlton Heston.
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I cannot recite the Ten Commandments but I can remember most.
(A quick review of Exodus 20 would be appropriate at this time. Note
that the first four commandments, verses 3-8, pertain to our
relationship with God, and the last six commandments, verses 12-17,
pertain to our relationship with other people.) We can think of the
Ten Commandments as God's rules for how we act, think and believe...
rules for living the "Christian life."
Here is the irony. NOBODY (except Jesus Christ) has ever
kept all of the commandments all of the time. God gave us his rules
for living, and NOBODY has ever been able to obey them. Not
the apostles, not the pope, not Billy Graham... NOBODY.
The Ten Commandments make us aware that we have a sinful nature
by showing us we cannot keep the law all the time. Instead of being
the rules for living, they are the proof we are hopelessly trapped
in our sin and cannot save ourselves by following the law.
Mercifully, God sent Jesus to die so that we could be forgiven of
our sins and reconciled back to Him.
So where does the notion of two commandments come from? When
Jesus was on earth, a group of people came to him and asked, "Which
is the greatest commandment?"
I chuckle at this question because I can sense the frustration of
the questioner not being able to keep the commandments, so he wants
to find out which are the most important one or two and maybe he
could concentrate on them.
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 The dialogue went like this:
Matt 22:36-40:
36"Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37Jesus
replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the
first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like
it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law
and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Jesus thus simplified the Ten Commandments with these two
commands. His command to love God speaks to the first four
commandments, and the command to love thy neighbor as thyself speaks
to the last six commandments.
Notice that Jesus' two commands both start with and are
predicated upon LOVE. Love God; love other people.
Exquisitely, Jesus' two commands can be synthesized even further
into one simple but all-encompassing command: LOVE.
Prayer: God, I really want to please you by obeying your
rules, but as hard as I try, I just keep messing up. I am so
grateful that Jesus took my sins and failures and paid for them with
his blood. Please infuse me with a double portion of your Holy
Spirit and manifest that infusion with a total, complete and outward
expression of love for You and for my fellow man.
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