Obeying God

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." -Matthew 22:37-40

I know I probably quote the Two Greatest Commandments too often, but there is a lot to consider, especially when addressing the debate regarding what obedience to God is supposed to look like between those Gentiles and Jews who honor the Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus). As part of my Bible readings for this week, I consulted Romans 13 and 14. Paul has a story to tell in this part of his letter.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. -Romans 13:8-10

Without doing so explicitly, Paul recalls the words of the Master as previously quoted and also invokes Yeshua's commentary on the Torah as recorded in Matthew 5 and on which I've previously blogged. Paul's conclusions regarding Yeshua's teachings seem about what I'd expect; that we should do no harm to one another and everything done in the name of love is a fulfillment of all the commandments.

Of course Nietzsche said that Anything done for love is beyond good and evil, but given Nietzsche's general philosophy and history, I don't think he was talking about the same thing.

When Paul said that love is the fulfillment of the law, he didn't mean having a warm, fuzzy emotional feeling for someone was the end or the conclusion of obeying the written Law of God, but rather, when he referenced the specific commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet,", he was saying that loving God and loving our neighbor is behavioral. It's not a feeling, it's an action. In fact, it's a specific series of actions that can be found in the Bible.

Unlike Nietzsche's viewpoint, anything done for love is not beyond good or evil, but anything done truly out of love as God defines it for us is good.

Paul goes on to say, Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy, (Romans 13:13) defining behaviors that are the opposite of doing good and loving each other. He continues:

Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. -Romans 14:1-4

This should be an eye opener for those of us involved in the Messianic, One Law/One Torah, and other similar communities, because most of our conversations in the blogosphere have to do with making such judgments about one another. I was recently criticized on the Gathering Sparks blog by someone in the comments section (not Yahnatan) for suggesting that the commandments are a goal to be achieved as a process when we walk with God, rather than a point event that we have to achieve perfectly in a single moment and then perform flawlessly for the rest of our existence.

For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God's judgment seat. -Romans 14:9-10

We judge each other rather than learning to live at peace with each other as Paul also teaches. We judge each other and in doing so, usurp the rightful place of the Messiah as our judge.

Regardless of what commandments you think you are obligated or invited to obey, if you perform all of these behaviors perfectly, but you don't obey the commandment to love, what are you?

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. -1 Corinthians 13:1-3

These verses weren't written to spice up your wedding ceremony. They were a letter to the Corinthians and to us about obeying God. Even if we have all manner of spiritual gifts, college degrees, lead huge congregations, and are called by many exalted titles, but if at our core, we do not have love, we are nothing.

It's no mystery why both of the two greatest commandments declared by Yeshua involve the process of loving something and someone outside our own skin. Do we love or not? Do we go left or right? Are we the black sheep or the white sheep in the Master's flock? Even if we believe we obey all of the Torah, are we obeying God? Do we love?