Instructions

The comment was made on a recent post: "The instructions we are given seem so simple and easy, but the carrying through with those instructions sometimes get lost with our good intentions."

Absolutely!!

It’s the first two instructions – the ones upon which all others hang – that we cannot seem to get right.

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 neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:36-40 KJV)

We don’t get the first part right.

Sure, many of say we love the Lord, but we give away pieces of our heart to people who do not know Him nor acknowledge Him as Lord. We keep a bit of our soul to ourselves, forgetting it belongs to Him, eternally. Our minds? We fill them with things that can only be defined as ungodly. “No!” you say? Go ahead – think only of what you’ve read/seen in books/tv that have at the very least ignored God and at the most, taken His name in vain. I can say that with confidence, for I have read/seen those things, too.

As for the second, we must think about how we feel about ourselves. Do we look upon ourselves as unworthy and place that upon our neighbors? How sad that is when we do. I was not worthy to unlatch the sandals on His feet, yet He made me worthy enough to be the child of God. My neighbor needs the same, and is just as worthy of God’s love.

So often we hear God’s call for a specific purpose and respond as Jonah did by running away. We have seen Jesus’ work in our own lives and in others but when asked about him we respond as Peter did with embarrassment and say we don’t know Him.

Think not? How about when we’re asked to an event on Sunday. Is not our reasoning that it is only one Sunday away from church, there are 51 more each year? Yet how often do we take away one of our celebrations of His resurrection to be elsewhere?

Do we tell anyone how much we do love Him? If we do, is it only other Christians that hear those words? Is it something we say at church, never at work or out in public? A simple greeting, such as “Have a blessed day!” instead of “Have a good day.” What a difference a blessing makes.

This one falls under loving your neighbor, too:

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44 KJV)

Can we do that? Or do we comment on other people’s driving habits in a derogatory manner and deride a relative/acquaintance/stranger’s deceit and cruelty? Who was the last person which despitefully use(d) you? How did you treat them when it happened? How do you treat them now?

Work on that first commandment by keeping God close in prayer and Bible study. The second becomes easier. Truly pray to God for spiteful neighbors, as we do for ourselves. It does make following Him easier and much more joyful.

Instructions to Missionaries, Clement LX, 1665 (Wiki Commons)