Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Matthew 22:39

This was interesting. God woke me up way early and I could just sense that there was something that He wanted to tell me so I asked, "What is it Lord?" "What do you want me to do?" Then He told me to love my neighbor as myself. This prompted me to pull up some online tools on the subject and to my surprise I found out that when Jesus was talking about it in Matthew 22:39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. What I found out by reading some commentaries is that it is understood in Jewish tradition that if you break one part of the law you are guilty of it all, and the part that I was ignorant of, when Jesus said 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. and then followed with "and the second is like it" <-- That Phrase Means It Is Equally As Great As The First. I always thought it meant that it was second in importance, but after reading the commentaries I understood differently. It is defined best in Greek as "corresponding to a thing" or the first thing mentioned.

The last thing I found and I remember reading in Extravagant Worship by Darlene Zschech is that there is no first and last law in the Jewish custom. They are all held the same so it is to be understood that these two mentioned are tied together with a cause and effect relationship. Out of loving God the way that you should you will love your neighbor as you are loved.

God was showing me more than that. He was showing that we should love everyone like He loves us. I was thinking impossible. Then I was thinking wow, that would actually make like a lot easier. He treats us with unconditional love. That's difficult to find. This lesson was so important I had to blog about it immediately.

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