Quick – what is the most important thing to Christian faith? Whether you are a Christian or not, have studied the bible or not, you probably have an opinion…you’ve seen what Christians emphasize, or not.
Now let’s see what Jesus said:
Matthew 22:35-40
…a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And 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 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.”
Love God, love neighbour. Jesus says loving our neighbour is the second most important commandment in the world. Depending on your interpretation of “like it” the commandments may even have equal stature!
This was a testing question – the Pharisees, religious lawyers, would have been happy to see Jesus was giving their enemies the Sadducees a hard time just before this story happened, but would be very concerned not to support him unless he was orthodox – teaching the right things. He was risky – he seemed to be a religious rebel, too creative and original. Was he really one of them? Was he really a devout Jew?
So they asked this question to see if he was law abiding. Their faith had 613 laws – all equally valid – so they asked him to pick one that is most important, hoping he’d fall into their trap and say some laws are not important, or invalid, and contradict God himself in the process.
To answer their question, Jesus quoted directly from two separate sections from the Old Testament part of the Bible. He gave the perfect answer, in many ways it was orthodoxy in a nutshell. The first was said every day by a devout Jew, so very familiar. It’s possible Jesus was the first to put that familiar saying together with the commandment to love one’s neighbour, but it has a beauty and elegant symmetry to it. Love God, people.
He didn’t dismiss anything and prove himself to be a heretic. All ten commandments, and all other 600+ laws can be seen to “hang” under these two “hooks” or as this translation says, “depend” on these two commands.
Question: Make two columns on a piece of paper, or in your phone. One column says “love God” and the other “love neighbour.” Go through the ten commandments below and try to fit them in.
“You shall have no other gods before me.
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
“You shall not murder.
“You shall not commit adultery.
“You shall not steal.
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:3-17 ESV
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Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in nature. And that's because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of society’s divisions.
Maybe the idea of a fair and equitable society seems new to the world, but listen to these words from Paul, one of the first Christian leaders 2000 years ago.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. (Galatians 3:27-29 ESV)
He names three big divisions in human society, that Paul says Christians will see differently: Race, Class, and Gender.
First, he calls out race by saying there is neither Jew nor Greek when we live together in Christ. He said this in the context of a divided culture, with Jews trying to make their way through life as a people distinct from the many nations around them, all heavily influencd by Greek culture. He just uses “Greek” as shorthand for Gentiles, the non-Jews, whether they are Roman or Greek or otherwise.
He calls out class, saying there is neither slave nor free. He was lived in a society that relied on slavery to function, so what he said was counter-cultural.
Finally he calls out gender, saying there is neither male nor female. He said that in a culture where women were held in low regard, even despised.
To all of these divisions, Paul says something groundbreaking, that they are all one in Christ Jesus. We miss how revolutionary this was.
Paul is not saying that these divisions don’t exist, or that they are to be completely ignored. He knows there are races, classes and genders in our world. It’s impossible and impractical to ignore these distinctions, yet our culture sometimes reacts in bizarre ways when these divisions get out of hand.
A young child’s swimming teacher was going to be away for a week, and the child asked who the new teacher would be. The parents said they didn’t know, and he asked if it would be the black swim teacher.
This was an awkward moment because adults had never used that language around the child before, and were surprised the child spoke about skin colour. Adults also know it’s wrong to refer to someone by the colour of their skin if it’s in judgement, or as if one attribute somehow describes the whole person. But for a child, it was completely innocent, simply describing someone he saw. In a swimming pool you either describe a physical attribute, or a bathing suit, those are your choices.
But because of that history of judgement and division, I think adults in our culture have reacted by pretending there are no differences in skin colour, gender, etc. when that is clearly not true. Along with one’s heritage come great cultural riches – music, festivals, clothing, ideas, etc. that we don’t want to lose.
Is there an alternative to bigotry and reactionary colour blindness? Absolutely, and it’s the view of the one who created every human, male and female, everywhere in the world.
Those who follow Jesus are all one in Christ Jesus, described as Abraham’s offspring, heirs according ot promise, regardless of those things that normally divide humans one from another.
God’s promise to Abraham was that he would bless the world through him and his offspring. They aren’t barriers to followers of Jesus having fellowship with one another. We recognize each other as equals, family members and co-heirs.
Unfortunately the Christian Church hasn’t got a great history of following through on this.
Question: When have you seen ethnic, class or gender divisions among Christians?
