The Greatest Commandment

This one is for all those people who make Christianity out to be deeper than it needs to be. Who cares what type of music you listen to, who cares if you date or dont, who cares if you are baptist or pentecostal? Who cares if you speak in tongues or not? The root of the whole matter can be found in the following paragraphs...

Mathew 22:36-40 describes the revealing of the greatest commandment in the whole Bible. Jesus was asked by a Jewish attorney (shout out to my cousin John) what the greatest commandment in law was...sounds like that would be a really tough question to answer. I mean think about it, if someone walked up to you and asked you; "Hey, what is the most important thing in the Bible that God wants me do?" Most of us wouldn’t know what to say, or we would say the wrong thing...but let’s look at how Jesus handled the situation...

Jesus simply replied to him something that Jews were taught from a very early age...it was simple but profound. Jesus quoted Deut 6:5..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind"...then he told the attorney what the number 2 commandment was..."You shall love your neighbor as yourself"...he then furthered "on these two commandments hang the whole Law and Prophets"... In other words...the whole book is based on this cornerstone. And I am here telling you today that, not only is the Bible based on this premise, but so is "The Faith" or our "Christian Lifestyle".

Loving God is the motivation for living right, loving God is the motivation for doing what he tells us. When we get a deeper understanding of this, our Christian walk no longer becomes a list of what you can’t do, but it becomes a list of things you won’t do or will do because you love him so much. This is the cornerstone of our walk with Him (Jesus is the cornerstone of our Faith...but love is the cornerstone of our walk) So now that we know that our love for God is what aides us in living for him...I think it’s safe to assume the opposite is true also...not loving Him is what leads to a stale walk with Him. A lack of love and respect for God is what causes people to do things that grieve him...would you disrespect or do things to intentionally hurt your significant other?

The next time you realize that your life is not lining up with what you say about God or how you claim to love Him, check your Love for Him. Are you honestly loving him with the all of your being or just in words only...Remember what Jesus said in John 14:15 "If you love me, you will keep my commandments... Now let’s look at how to safeguard our love for GOD and seal this Christian Lifestyle...

Talk About Him; There is something special when you talk about what or who you love...you start to gain even more feelings of affection for it or them. When you talk about that special someone (guy or girl), how they treat you..what they said to you, what they did for you...you start to love them more....Don’t you think the same would be true for God? Talk about him!

Communicate with Him; You can only truly love people that you know. And you can only know people that you communicate with...sounds simple, but sometimes we can forget this when we deal with our Heaven Father...

Study Him; I love Church history and I love cars...I will watch any show that talks about it, I will read books that discuss those subjects...I will go to workshops and shows that deal with them...I can talk to you in detail about either subject...we need to do the same for God...

(this is a true refresher to me, hope it is to you as well...

- The Hipster