Have you ever stopped to consider just how many different sets of rules you have to deal with each and every day?
There are rules for when you write. Capitals should be larger than lower case letters. Change the y to an i and add es.
There are rules for math. A negative plus a negative is a negative, but a negative times a negative is a positive.
There are rules at school and at work. There are even rules at the mall!
There are rules when you drive, like which side of the road you need to be on and who goes first at a four-way stop..although no one seems to know that last one.
There are rules when you play sports. Which change. Every year.
It’s amazing our brains can keep track of it all! Of course, these rules are in place to keep us safe and help us all communicate well, but given the quantity of guidelines, you’d think we’d run the risk of putting i before e except before you change lanes. In fact, sometimes we do forget a rule, and that can land us in a LOT of trouble.
So it’s not a surprise that when some people open the Bible, they get intimidated by what looks like a bunch more rules. (Seriously—read the book of Leviticus.) God handed down his Top 10 list to Moses in the commandments, then gave the Israelites other directions on how to live. Through the centuries, these “rules” has been collated, memorized, and even added to by the religious elite. They used their knowledge and obedience of the rules not to grow closer to God, but to show how awesome they were and how unimportant other people were. In fact, that’s exactly what they were trying to do when they asked Jesus what the most important commandment was in Matthew 22:36-40.
Jesus does something wonderfully simple and amazingly awesome in His reply. Did you catch it? All of those giant lists of rules that the Pharisees and scribes were famous for knowing, all of the “Thou shalt’s” and “Thou shalt not’s” can be summarized by two commands.
1—Love God with everything you have.
2—Love and care for other people as though they were living in your skin.
isn’t that amazing?! Everything we aspire to do as Christians is either about loving God more OR about loving and caring for the people around us with the love God has for us. When we worship, we’re building our love for God. When we talk about Jesus with a friend, we’re actually loving on them. This is what God wants us to focus on. It’s what he wants us to be about—as a body of believers, as people, and as families.
They’re simple commands, but oh, so important. And easy to overlook. Spend some time talking about practical ways your family can apply both commands this week. What can you do together to love God more? Maybe you’re going to commit to come to Vision Sunday this week. Or perhaps your family will do some worship time together at home. What about loving others? How can your family reach out to someone else this week and show love? It could be an act of kindness or generosity. Maybe an offer of friendship or forgiveness.
Determine what you’re going to do and when—then make it happen! Let’s let love rule our lives!
