As I was considering G.D. Watsons words on loving God, I started talking to God about how it confused me. And suddenly the idea of "thou shalt" came to my mind.
It's the greatest commandment. The greatest.
Thou shalt love God. (shortened)
Thou shalt love God.
You MUST.
If I ordered you to love me as a daughter, a wife, a sister, a mother... wouldn't you laugh at the impossibility of such an order? I can't just tell you to love me.
But God told you to love me too.
Thou shalt love your neighbor.
You MUST.
It's the second greatest commandment.
Love is so fickle now days, with people thinking they're in love, getting married, and then 'falling out of love' and getting divorced. Families set against each other locked in bitter silences. All this, seemingly out of our control, because "you just can't make yourself feel love for someone".
Yet here God, without a moment of hesitation, says You MUST love Me. You MUST love your neighbor.
If I MUST - how do I do it?
Some neighbors are harder to love than others.
And sometimes you just don't feel anything.
In reflecting on G.D. Watsons teaching to love the person of Christ, I began to wonder about my desire for Heaven.
If I had the choice for Heaven, a sinless place where only people that loved God were, the angelic choir is singing Holy Holy Holy, and finding Paul or Timothy and talking to them, no sickness, no suffering, no death, no tears -
Would I chose that over staying in a sinful world if Jesus were walking on it as He once did?
If so, did I break the greatest commandment or fulfill it?
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4 comments:
It's a topsy-turvy world isn't it?
The world would say express love on the basis of emotion.
God would say let any emotion come on the back of first expressing love.
All I can say is that I too am learning that He's right!
i am amazed at how sometimes two post on the same subjest, more or less, come across in my blog reading on the same day...as here and also, the blog of ted, the Jesus Community at, http://communityofjesus.blogspot.com/2007/11/deeply-caring-about-others.html
good post.
That reminds me of Soren Kierkegaard's Works of Love. When I read his statement "You must love" and how he expounded on it, I reacted in a "wow, that's deep. Right on, man!" way intellectually. However, it's true and I've found that love comes from somewhat pitying others when I used to see pity as a bad word, like a cuss word. I was all proud with "pity?! I don't want to pity and don't need any pity." Actually, profound love can emerge from just trying to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
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