Billy Graham wrote: "We are not to hold the world in contempt. We are to obey its laws. We are to love those for whom Christ died. We are to pray for them, witness to them, and help in all worthwhile social projects that we can. But we are to achieve that most difficult of all tasks, not to be conformed to the world. This is the Christian’s stand; this is the Christian’s job." January 26, 2016, In the World, But Not of It.
When Jesus said in Matthew 22- "“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets, " what did he mean.? Did He really mean we were to look around us and love those folks in our neighborhood or was He talking about something much more.
The ten commandments fit in to the basics of both of those commandments. The first four directly relating to our relationship with God (loving god) and the last 6 directely focused on the relationships of people (loving others). I want to think that Jesus was saying that it is just as important that we love and respect each other in the same way that we are loved by Him. If we are created in the image of God, then we need to realize that loving others is tantamount to loving God. Can we truly love our Creator without loving others in our sphere of life. When we think about our community and want to reach out to others, it is important to remember that just causes without Jesus are just a bandaid and that lifelong change and purpose comes in knowing Christ. We can argue over poverty, gun control, racism, human rights, animal rights, homelessness, government, abortion and any number of things but the real issue is a lack of loving God and loving others. Those two commandments hold the key to solving things in our world and until those two commandments become an integral part of our lives and communities, we will continue to go down the same road over and over. We will abolish one evil only to have it resurface with a different face and name becoming a new cause or social movement du jour. We all know people that run from cause to cause thinking that it will give them purpose, but purpose comes not from causes but by loving God and loving our neighbors.
As Billy Graham said, "We are to help in all social problems when we can" but let us begin each of those acts by checking them against those two great commandments handed out by Jesus. We should ask ourselves, "is my motivation to do something based on my love of god and my love for neighbors." This is the real test. That word neighbor in the Greek was "plēsion' which was a neuter detivative of πέλας or pelas meaning mannkind or countryman. Guess that means we need to love more than just our own small circle.
Much love
Preach
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