Mark 12:28-34
The Greatest Commandment
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.
C . S. Lewis wrote about the Natural Laws in his book Mere Christianity...Humans have this feeling and desire to do the right things...We have a feeling the world should be kind and full of goodness...People of the world want a consistent standard of good behavior that is and should be defended...He says that man wants the world to be fair, and the people of the world -wherever they are and live, they want the world to be fair...They have this desire to see unselfishness, all things truthful, and in my words merciful and kind to each other...If these standards are violated then the Natural Laws are broken and some sort of justice needs to be done to reconcile this wrong...All people want a just and orderly community, society and place to live following these Natural Laws...These laws are in our logical reasoning of things and in our conscious and subconscious...They are, therefore, in our minds, as we read the daily news, and see that they are broken...
Lewis saw the nature of goodness, the nature of evil, the importance of redemption, and the power of love...He believed and wrote about that goodness in the end would overpower evil...He believed in God...
Followers of Jesus believe in this Natural Law and believe it should be followed and believe that there is a Source behind this Law, and His Name is God...God created us to be able to follow these Natural Laws...But something happened to us...
Jesus, when He arrived on earth, and dwelt among us, believed in righteousness, goodness, and in love...He especially believed in God...And even though we believe in these Natural Laws and in the goodness and kindness of each other they are as hard as nails to follow...There has only been One Man to completely follow them...And His name is Jesus...And so as one might see these Natural Laws as simple and easy to follow, they really are Transcendent...
St. Paul writes about this belief in God's Laws and says for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show the work of the law written on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them...
So even though we maybe have not heard of the Natural Laws, of thought about God and how He went about creating all things, these laws are still written in man's hearts and we know consciously and unconsciously, that we should obey them...We all somehow sense this natural order and feel this desire for love from others and for people to behave right and good, instead of wrong and being evil...These unwritten Natural Laws that are felt in our hearts are there for our world to live in harmony...These laws are not given to us without any thought or reason, but by a God who is LOVE...They are based on how we should live and want others to live and how we see the world can be a better place...They are given to us by God so the world can live in a loving harmony...And if we can live this way it is pleasing to our Father...Our Father wants all His children back...
But even before Jesus, and then during Jesus' time, and now two thousand years later the Natural Laws of everyone living in harmony still has not been attained...It seems more of a goal than an attainable situation, where the world can live in harmony...The law of love can be hard to follow when we are angry or hurt or believe that someone is our enemy...The law of justice is very hard to follow when we are personally faced with injustice on ourselves or our family and friends...Forgiving is hard, when it comes our turn to forgive...Love is hard when we are suffering...Loving everyone is hard because everyone we meet for one reason or another, we do not like...Loving our enemies is very hard, because most of them do not share our beliefs...It is hard to have a just and orderly society and community with evil in our presence...
Until we love both God and neighbor, these good, kind, merciful, forgiving things will just be words and not the world's reality...The Greatest Commandments are love commandments...God is the priority in our lives, and having a relationship with Him, by loving Him...We can love God by praying, reading the Bible, and following Jesus' teachings...We can love our neighbors by volunteering our time, donating to charity, and being kind to everyone we meet, even those different from us...Let us always remember the Second Greatest Commandment is like the First Great Commandment...They are about love....Loving God and loving neighbor -all neighbors...