Matthew 22:35–40, “And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”. This is also reflected in Micah 6:8; “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly,To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” Again the emphasis is to be on the expression of “Godly Love” (agape).
The great and first commandment in all of Scripture is to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and your neighbour as yourself. God wants His people first and above all to love Him (as He loves all) with every part of their being. The heart and soul and mind may describe the centres of emotion, action, and thought. If our rationale is that God is with all and in all, then the second part of loving our neighbour as yourself is equivalent to loving the God who is in and with all. In short, do unto others as you would for God. Unfortunately, mankind has been cherry picking in the scriptures over the time of history and they have misunderstood and been made to be the ‘most’ important issue in regards to His will for all. Quite often we want to explain God’s will for us in a way that we are comfortable with and suits us. Humanity has made it fit within our sometimes limited understanding of theology and world views. There seems to be a challenge for the Leaders/clergy to emphasise only certain aspects of His will because we will be comfortable with the will as interpreted by those ‘fearless’ leaders. In the recent past, with Covid-19, there was an emphasis and so-called need to show our love for our neighbours and obedience to our secular leaders according to Rom 13:1-10. However, when there is a conflict between secular society and God’s will, we are to be obedient to His will and commands. We are challenged to meet with one another in fellowship, to pray for each other and to support each other and not to be locked away. On a practical level, the church has always been open for anyone in need. This need can be physical and or spiritual, in connection to this it was and still is wrong to lock up churches. There has been a one sided and misplaced so-called ‘christian’ response in regards to the authority of governments and their emphasis on sacrifice for the greater good. This is in contradiction to our freedom of worship, fellowship, spiritual support, etc. There was and still is a need for the church to give support and comfort to those in need, whether it be spiritual or physical. The church is to be approachable and not to be restricted to lockouts and online streaming meetings only, especially in times of need.
All the following scripture quotations are the result and outworking of the great and first command of loving God and our neighbour as ourselves, and not the main reason of God’s will for us.
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching ” (Hebrews 10:25).
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
“For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.” (Mark 3:35).
“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:3-4).
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror;” (James 1:22-23).
“One who pays attention to the word will find good, and blessed is one who trusts in the Lord” (Prov 16:20).
Last but not least, in 1 Thess 5:16-18 we have the challenge to: “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”. This giving ‘thanks’ becomes a reality when we realise that God’s love for us and our love for Him and neighbours is without bounds and as a result no matter what happens we are His. Therefore, we can and are to be thankful in all circumstances.
