Love God, love your neighbor

I am in the midst of the 8-27 Challenge right now, as I am every August. It’s where we read the New Testament in one month. It’s the 8th month, and there are 27 books in the New Testament, hence the name, 8-27 Challenge.

I’ve never had trouble keeping up with it before, but this year is somehow different. I must be busier although I can’t figure out with what, but here I am struggling.

So in the first few days of the challenge I listened to a couple of chapters while I was driving to town. I know, I know. Ben says this is cheating, and I would have agreed with him in previous years, but while I was listening that day, I heard something that I’ve read hundreds of times but never noticed. This is kind of like editing, where you edit once on the computer, then you make a print copy and edit on paper, and if you’re still worried you’re missing something, you actually read it out loud. Your brain notices different things in different modalities, and each way helps you see errors you might miss another way.

Anyway, I was listening to Matthew chapter 22, which tells about Jesus being questioned by the Sadducees on events in the resurrection (which they didn’t even believe in) and him shutting them down. Then the Pharisees jumped in and tried to trip him up on matters of the law. Here’s the conversation:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is the first and great commandment.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Basically, he gave a Cliff’s Notes version of the law. I’ve heard it said that there are 613 commandments in the Old Testament law, all contained in the first five books of the Bible. I’ve never counted so I can’t verify, but Google agrees with this number. I’ve read through them all many times, and I can tell you it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of loving going on in a lot of them. Washing the walls of the house when someone has an open sore that lasts more than (however many) days . . . stuff like that. It’s practical stuff, not loving God or your neighbor.

But this is what Jesus said. All ten commandments plus the other hundreds of laws given to Israel all lumped together say this: love God and love others. If you love God and you love other people, that’s the whole law.

One thing to note: he’s not talking about love, the feeling. He’s saying love in action—putting God first and putting others before ourselves in everything we do every day—covers it all. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Lightbulb moment: We don’t need to memorize a list of rules; we just have to put God first and others before ourselves.

I’ve been thinking about this whole idea for a couple of weeks. Then I came to John 13:35, which says (again, Jesus speaking),

By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

People won’t know you are Jesus’ disciple if you follow the rules perfectly. They’ll know by your loving actions.

And John 15:12–13, which says (still Jesus),

This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The 613 commandments are God’s; this one is Jesus’. He’s saying the same thing—that the issue is loving God and loving others—but now he’s giving us an example: love like I have loved you. So in every situation in life, love God first (by living in a manner that honors him) and love others like Jesus has loved us. That’s the expectation he has of us.

Now, I know there are some out there who are thinking, “So I should just let people walk all over me?” and the answer is No. Jesus didn’t. He knew when he needed to get away from people—and maybe get people away from him. He knew when he needed quiet and rest, and he walked away when he needed to.

In John 2, he knew when a little holy violence was called for. The Bible says,

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

He knew the law required specific animals to be sacrificed for specific transgressions, but he didn’t want the religious folks making a profit over it, especially not in the temple, which was the place of worship. Their focus was on doing the laws instead of loving God and loving their neighbor.

More than that, he wanted people to be able to see that he (Jesus) was the fulfillment of the law. He was the perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Money couldn’t buy his once-for-all payment for sin; that only comes by believing.

He had boundaries, but his boundaries were set from a posture of love, not out of anger or vengeance or impatience or spite. So have your boundaries, but make sure your motivations for them are right.

Love God with everything you are, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love people like Jesus does.

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By the time you read this, I will be up to Galatians and Ephesians, more than halfway through the New Testament. If you’ve never done the 8-27 Challenge before, I highly recommend it. When you read slowly you see details. But when you read (or listen, haha) in volume, you see themes. You can tie together passages that are books apart. I guarantee you’ll learn something new.