THE MAIN THING
C. Bishop
For the [true] love of God is this: that we do His commands [keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and teaching]. And these orders of His are not irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous). 1 John 5:3 (AMP)
I want to impress on your mind that God says we need to do what He says! In Matthew 7:21 Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Well what is the will of the Father? We just read it in 1st John 5:3 from the amplified... The will of the Father is that we do His commands; that we keep His ordinances; and that we are mindful of his precepts and teachings! Note He says “these orders of His are not irksome, burdensome, oppressive, or grievous.” Don’t you think that means we had better know what his command is? Jesus told us in John 15:12 – He said “This is my commandment, that you love one another.” That doesn’t sound “irksome, burdensome, oppressive, or grievous” to me!
Let’s go back to 1st John 5:3 again… Recall that it starts off with “For the true love of God is this: that we do His commands…” and Jesus in John 15:12 says “this is my command, that you love one another.” Beautiful! Simple! Straightforward! Clear! But we make it oh so complicated!
Recently, while looking at Matthew Chapter 23 where Jesus was confronting the Pharisees, I reminded you that the verse commonly translated “judge not lest ye be judged” would be better translated “condemn not lest ye be condemned”. With that in mind we observed that, yes, He was making a judgment. But, in effect, He must have really been saying, “Hey! You are wrong! I don’t condemn you – I love you! I would rather that you repent and be saved. So you need to hear this...”
The New Testament does not give us a minute by minute completely detailed account of the entire three years of Jesus’ ministry, but really just touches the highlights. I have got to think that Jesus had a number of conversations with the Pharisees from time to time (and certainly a lot of conversations with his disciples) that we don’t have down in black and white. You know that when Jesus was having dinner in the home of the Pharisees there had to be some talk. His disciples often came to him with questions. The same thing with the Pharisees – they came to him with questions. Nicodemus, for example, came to him in the dead of night saying, “…tell me about this stuff - I don’t get it!” There had to be many more conversations than what we have listed!
I think we can extrapolate, from what we do have, how those conversations might have gone. So, to indulge in a little conjecture if I may, of what some of those conversations might have been like, I’m going to use Matthew 23 to remind myself of what they may have been about:
Jesus said to his disciples, to the crowd, and primarily to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees – the religious people (that is, those who claimed to know God – that is, us); Jesus said to them, “You sit in Moses’ seat – you go to the Synagogue regularly (or in our terms today “you attend church”). You know, that’s good. There are a number of reasons why you need to do that. But that’s not the main thing. You make your phylacteries wide and the tassels on your garments long – to remind you to pray without ceasing, to pray earnestly, to pray sincerely, to intercede for one another, to commune with the Lord your God in prayer, and that’s good. You need to do that. But that’s not the main thing. Men call you Rabbi (or Pastor, or Teacher or Bible Student), and that’s really good. It means that you are into the Word – you are studying the Word. You are writing His Word on your heart. You’ve got a lot of passages of Scripture memorized. And that is really, really good! You really do need to do that! It’s important! You need to search the Scriptures because they tell you of Me! But you know what? As good as that is, it’s not the main thing either. You teach. You tell others about your faith. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert – and that’s good. Evangelism is good. Crusades are good. Revivals are good. Seeing people get saved is good. As wonderful and commendable as all that is, it’s still not the main thing.”
“And when you make a promise (when you swear an oath), you are bound by your oath. You keep your word, maintain your integrity. You are growing in godly character. That’s good too. Very commendable – but not quite yet the main thing.”
“You give a tenth – not just of the gross of your income, but you give a tenth of everything you are and everything you own and your time and your talents. You tithe. Wonderful! Again, you are to be commended. That is something you really ought to do! But that’s not the main thing. And you appear to people as righteous – they see something in you that’s good and attractive and to be desired. Along with Me, even some of them commend you. And yet, none of these things are the main thing…”
So finally, in Matthew 22:36-38, they get around to asking him, “Well hey, Teacher, come on! Tell us straight out – what’s the main thing?” I paraphrased a little. It says, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment?” Basically they’re saying, “Hey, Rabbi, what is the Main thing? And Jesus replied, “[The main thing is to] love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind – this is the first and greatest commandment…”
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind – that’s the main thing!
Well right away they’re saying, “Hey! That’s a problem! Because God is Spirit! He can’t be seen; He can’t be touched; He’s unapproachable; He has need of nothing! How can He be loved?” And Jesus answered, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And they go, “Huh? Say what? I don’t get it! I don’t get it – love your neighbor as yourself? That’s how God can be loved?”
Jesus explains this in Matthew 25:35, 36, and 40 – He says, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. I tell you the truth, what ever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did for me.”
Jesus said if you love your neighbor as yourself – by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, ministering to the sick, and so forth – It is the same as doing it to Him.
Well at this point it is a good idea to remember and emphasize who Jesus is! Colossians 2:9 “For in Christ the whole fullness of the deity, the Godhead, dwells in bodily form.” John 10:30 “I and the Father are one.” Matthew 1:23 “They shall call His name Immanuel which, being interpreted, is ‘God with us’.” Do you get that? Jesus the Christ is God - in the flesh! So now let’s look at Matthew 25:35, 36 & 40 again…
I was hungry – I Am God and I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat...
Wait a minute! We’re talking about loving our neighbor as ourselves!
Yeah, that’s right… if you see someone hungry and you feed them, it’s the same as if you fed God Himself. You see somebody thirsty and you give them something to drink, it’s the same as giving God something to drink. You invite a stranger in and it is the same as inviting God Himself in for your hospitality. Somebody needs clothes and you give them clothes, it’s the same as if you gave those clothes to God Himself. Somebody is sick, you minister to them; guess who you’re ministering to? It’s the same as if you were ministering to God Himself. Somebody is in prison, or the nursing home, or the hospital and you go and visit them - it’s like visiting God Himself because He takes it personally when you help somebody else!
When you love your neighbor as yourself, God, Jesus, said, “I take that personally! If you show your love to your neighbor, I take it personally. It is the same as if you were showing love directly to Me and I tell you the truth, whatever you do for one of the least of these people that you bump into in life, you do it for Me because I take it personally when you show the love of God to somebody. That’s love! That’s how you love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind – and that’s the main thing!”
Jesus said all that and then Paul comes along in 1st Corinthians 13 and he says, “If I speak with the tongues of man and of angels, wonderful! That’s great! But if I don’t love my neighbor as myself I’m only making noise. If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and have a faith that can move mountains, great! Praise the Lord God! But if I don’t love my neighbor as myself, I’m nothing. If I give all I have to the poor it might look good on the surface, but if my motive is to look good to other people (rather than out of love for God), I could even surrender my body to the flames and I would gain nothing – you cannot ‘earn’ salvation.”
“Love is the main thing! Love is patient with people that irritate you. Love is Kind to people that slander you. Love does not envy when somebody else has a new house or a new car or something else you’d like. Love doesn’t go around boasting about how righteous it is. Love is not proud; not rude; not self-seeking; not easily angered… (Last week we read a scripture that said, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be better to just be cheated than it would be to take revenge or get even or sue somebody?’ 1st Corinthians 6:7) …Don’t be easily angered. Love keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects… (Protects whom? Your neighbor! Same as you would protect yourself! And it’s the same as if you were protecting GOD because He takes it personally!) Love trusts… (That’s kind of hard to do; you trust somebody and they let you down, they disappoint you. Well you don’t condemn them, but you make a judgment of how to better interact with them so that you can continue to love them in Jesus’ name just as you would love yourself; because it’s the same as loving God.) …Love always hopes, always perseveres. And Love never fails…”
Whoa, that’s a tough one! “Love never fails” – your neighbor has a need and you are aware of it. In one of those three little epistles of his, John said, “If you see a brother with a need and you have no compassion for him, how can the love of God be in you?” Paul says love never fails: your neighbor has a need, but you’ve got another priority so you ignore it and go do your own thing. Whoa! That’s a failure! Who did you fail? Same as if you’d failed God himself! Lord God forgive us, please, for being so self-centered! Help us to be more like Jesus Who never failed to help everyone!
“But where there are prophesies… hey wonderful! …prophesies are great, but they will cease. Where there are tongues, that’s nice, that’s wonderful, it does some good – but they will be stilled. Prophesies and tongues are not the main thing. Where there’s knowledge it will pass away; because we only know in part, and we only prophesy in part, but when perfection comes the imperfect disappears. Just the same as when we were kids – we talked like kids; we thought like kids; we reasoned like kids; when we grew up we began to be a little more logical, and we put childish ways behind. But we still have to recognize that we only see a poor reflection - like as though in a mirror - we aren’t there yet, we don’t quite have it, but when He comes and we see Him face to face then we’ll know fully even as we are fully known.” So Paul finishes up with, “Now these three remain: Faith, Hope, and Love. But the main thing is Love.” He says that, “The greatest of these is Love – that’s the main thing!”
“Love the lord your god with all your heart, and mind, and soul and strength; loving your neighbor as yourself” because when you love your neighbor as yourself God takes it personally. He’s saying, “That’s how you Love Me. That’s My commandment, that you ‘Love one another’ – that’s the main thing.”
Jesus said it, Paul reaffirmed it, and now Peter comes along and in 1st Peter 1:6-8, 4:8, & 4:19 and he says, “Well you know, life is hard. You may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials – maybe somebody has done you dirt – love them anyway. These (griefs, trials, disappointments) have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine... [Oh, so that’s how our faith is proved to be genuine!] …and that will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” – when He returns, when He sets up His millennial reign, when He comes back to show us how it should have been done all along! And Peter says (like those Pharisees said), “(God is Spirit. You can’t touch Him. He’s unapproachable.) Even though you may not have seen Jesus, you love Him. How? Well the main thing is by loving each other deeply. By committing yourselves to our faithful Creator and continuing to do good to your neighbor.”
Love your neighbor as yourself. God takes it personally. He says, “That’s how you love Me.” Well how do you love yourself? You take good care of you don’t you? You keep yourself warm; you keep yourself clothed; you keep yourself housed; you keep yourself fed… you could go on and on. God says, “If you will do all those same things for your neighbor (and your ‘neighbor’ is everybody you come in contact with) I will take it personally; it will be the same as if you are doing it to Me That’s how you love Me. That’s the main thing.”
Ok - Jesus said it, Paul reaffirmed it. Peter jumps in and he says, “Yeah, that’s the main thing.” Now James comes along in James 1:27 and he says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this; to look after orphans and widows in their distress…” [as if unto God himself]. Finally, in 1st John 3:17-18, John also agrees, saying “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children let us not love with words, or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” Then verses 23 & 24, “This is His command, to believe in the name of His son Jesus the Christ and to love one another as He commanded us. Those who obey His commands live in Him and He in them. This is how we know that He lives in us: we know it by the Spirit He gave us - the Spirit of Love.”
Okay now – if you love one another, and love your neighbor as yourself (not for selfish reasons but as to God Himself), what’s going to happen? Well it will prompt some (not all, but some) to ask why… “Why do you love your neighbor as yourself? Really now, why do you do that? You don’t get anything out of it! At least you don’t seem to get anything out of it. So why do you do that? Why love your neighbor as yourself?” That is always an opportunity God has given you! You’d better give an answer – your testimony – your first-hand account as a witness. A ‘witness’ tells what they know personally – “Here is what my life was like before Christ; here is how I got ‘saved’ (by renouncing my selfishness and placing my faith in Jesus to show me how to truly live); and here is how life has been ever since.” Your loving kindnesses will have earned you the right to be heard!
1st Peter 3:15 says, “In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord and always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that you have [for the love you show your neighbor], and do it with gentleness and respect.” So when your neighbor says, “Okay, you’ve done all this for me and I hardly even know you – why are you doing it?” it gives you a chance to say, “I’m doing it because God loves you; and God loves me; and God wants me to love you so that you will know that He loves you!” They might come back with, “How could God love me? I’m no lousy good!” Then you can tell them “God has demonstrated His love for you! God went to the Cross and took your punishment for your sins even while you were still a sinner! (Romans 5:8) Christ died for you! That’s how He showed his love for you. Now He’s showing his love for you through me doing what I can do for you. God loves you and you know what? 1st Peter 4:8 says ‘Love covers over a multitude of sins.’ God loves you and all He asks is that you ask Him to help you to love Him back! You do that through faith in what Jesus Christ has done for you. Make Him the Lord of your life and you will be ‘saved’… you will have eternal life. Then you, in turn, can also ‘love your neighbor as yourself’ as a way of showing your love for God.”
“I give you [this] commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].” John 13:34-35 (AMP) That’s the main thing! That’s how you love God! That is so simple; so straight forward; so clear; so beautiful! Why do we complicate it with rules and regulations? Thou shalt this; thou shalt not that! You’ve gotta go to church – yes that’s nice, but it’s not the main thing. You’ve got to pray – yes you really should, but it’s not the main thing. You need to be in the Word so that you get to know Christ better – yes, that is essential! But even that isn’t really the main thing. That you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind, and your neighbor as yourself because He takes it personally as though you are loving Him directly – that’s the main thing!
Praise God! Thank you Lord! “Help us do it! Help us ‘be’ love personified to our neighbor!” [“God is love.” 1st John 4:8 and 4:16] When you say, “We need to ‘be’ Jesus to our neighbor”, you’re saying you need to be God to your neighbor. Are you willing to really mean that? God loves you so much He was willing to die for you! Are you willing to die for your neighbor? Jesus says, “No one has greater love than this – to give up his own life for his neighbor.” (John 15:13) This means that when your neighbor needs clothes, food, ministering to, when they’re sick or whatever, you may have to sacrifice a little – it may cost you something! Do it anyway! Love them! And you will love some right into the Kingdom with you, praise the Lord!
