People are not Easy to Love no. 31

“Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents not to give in to the desires of your old nature, which keep warring against you; but to live such good lives among the pagans that even though they now speak against you as evil-doers, they will, as a result of seeing your good actions, give glory to God on the Day of his coming. For the sake of the Lord, submit yourselves to every human authority — whether to the emperor as being supreme, or to governors as being sent by him to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do what is good. For it is God’s will that your doing good should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Submit as people who are free, but not letting your freedom serve as an excuse for evil; rather, submit as God’s slaves. Be respectful to all — keep loving the brotherhood, fearing God and honoring the emperor” (1 Kefa (1 Pe) 2:11-17). Submission to God and to men is the cornerstone of Christianity. Love your God and love your neighbor, “'He told him, ‘You are to love Adonai your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ This is the greatest and most important mitzvah . And a second is similar to it, ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ All of the Torah and the Prophets are dependent on these two mitzvot’”(Mattityahu (Mat) 22:37-40). Submission to God and neighbor through love. ALL of the Tanakh, ALL of The Old Testament depends on those two laws. Not some of it. Not a few parts of it. ALL of what came before in The Bible depends on those two laws. And just in case you missed it here is another account of the same thing from another gospel, “Yeshua answered, ‘The most important is, ‘ Sh’ma Yisra’el, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one], and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You are to love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other mitzvah greater than these’” (Mark (Mrk) 12:29-31). People are not easy to love because they don’t want to love.

We serve God by serving others. We submit to God by loving others. “Everyone is to obey the governing authorities. For there is no authority that is not from God, and the existing authorities have been placed where they are by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities is resisting what God has instituted; and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are no terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to be unafraid of the person in authority? Then simply do what is good, and you will win his approval; for he is God’s servant, there for your benefit. But if you do what is wrong, be afraid! Because it is not for nothing that he holds the power of the sword; for he is God’s servant, there as an avenger to punish wrongdoers. Another reason to obey, besides fear of punishment, is for the sake of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes; for the authorities are God’s public officials, constantly attending to these duties. Pay everyone what he is owed: if you owe the tax-collector, pay your taxes; if you owe the revenue-collector, pay revenue; if you owe someone respect, pay him respect; if you owe someone honor, pay him honor. Don’t owe anyone anything — except to love one another; for whoever loves his fellow human being has fulfilled Torah . For the commandments, ‘Don’t commit adultery,’ ‘Don’t murder,’ ‘Don’t steal,’ ‘Don’t covet,’ and any others are summed up in this one rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does not do harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fullness of Torah” (Romans (Rom) 13:1-10). I get thrown that section of Romans all the time when I talk about how we shouldn’t be pledging allegiance to nations BUT to Him. And you will see exactly the same idea presented here by Paul. Why does Paul say what Jesus was saying? Why does Peter say the same thing Jesus was saying? I think that is rather explanatory. BUT the better question is probably about me. Why am I not saying what Jesus is saying? Who am I really following?

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH

People are Not Easy to Love no. 30

“For it was through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation, so that I might live in direct relationship with God. When the Messiah was executed on the stake as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not reject God’s gracious gift; for if the way in which one attains righteousness is through legalism, then the Messiah’s death was pointless” (Galatians (Gal) 2:19-21). Some folks want a set of rules and not a relationship. Rules are easy to figure out. Relationships are between people. Relationships are cooperative. Relationships require work and learning. Some folks are not easy to love because they want The Bible to be a rule book.

Rules will not change you, relationships do. Life is all about relationships. Most importantly is my relationship to God. Then I need to work on my relationship with myself as well. And then I get to move on to relationships with other people. That first relationship is the most important because my relationship with God permeates all my other relationships. How I treat God is going to color the way I treat myself and others.

Relationships are difficult. Relationships require conversation. Relationships require spending time together. Relationships require an investment of yourself. Rules are just a list. And the problem I face is turning The Bible into a book of rules rather than an explanation of who God is. I look for a list rather than a relationship because the list is easier. The relationship demands time. The relationship demands learning. The relationship demands me.

And a lot of folks are not ready to give themselves to God enough to have a relationship. They would rather show up, sit down, put in their time, and clock out. They would rather do what they think is just enough. They would rather do the bare minimum. Is that the way to build a healthy relationship? Is that the kind of friendship you want? Is that the kind of marriage you want? Is that the kind of family you want?

Unfortunately, it is the relationship most Americans have with other people and themselves. If we want to work on relationships, the first relationship to fix is the one we have with God.

Grace and Shalom to your home.

I love you. I forgive you. Have a blessed and abundant day!

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoKingButChrist #EmbraceTheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH