Matthew 22:37-40
Two Greatest Commandments
37 Jesus replied: “‘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. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 5:21-22
Murder and Hatred
21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Mark 10:17-22
Only God is Good
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”
20 “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Matthew 7:12
The Golden Rule
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Much of our Old Testament is the Law and the Prophets...Jesus teaches us that the a
ll the Law and the Prophets hang on two commandments -to love God and to love our neighbors...Then He teaches us what sums up the Law and the Prophets...And what sums up the Law and the Prophets is this -so in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you...God wants us to love Him and He wants us to be sensitive and to love others...
When we as man think of all the things you like or could have in life, what do you think of?...Do you think of great wealth, a big house, a new car, a new big flat screen TV, or maybe living in a nice warm climate...Man seems to like material things and finds some security in them...Or when you think of something you would like to have do you think of morality and goodness and having much more of those two attributes...The things that sum up the Law and Prophets, the very things that make up most of our Bibles...
I find this so interesting that the God of Israel, is a moral God...He could have been a God of strength, a God of the weather, or One of the great seas (He is actually over all these things)...When I think of God, He is most definitely a moral God...I also believe that morality comes from God and His nature and being who He is...I do know that evolutionists do not believe this and believe that we morally have evolved from a small reptilian-like creature billions of years ago...Then billion of years later we evolved into man...Then we got morals and ethics as the more we evolve...I guess the more moral we will be generations from now... But we could have just as easily evolved into evil...The strongest and most evil of men could have survived...We are not told by the evolutionist how and why this did not happen...Why not a evolving evil?...Why and how does the evolutionist get to morality and goodness from a small primitive reptilian brain?...Reptiles, and as we evolved -we would have to challenged other species for food and to survive...Some evil (or intense competition (to say the least) toward others (other reptiles) would have existed...
And all this is interesting to me, because many times man's first thoughts are really not about morality...They are more personal of nature, and we tend to be more selfish...Man is more about his desires, his pleasures, and his happiness...But there was this extraordinary man who spoke long ago about morals and goodness...Jesus gives us a interesting vision of morality and in a different Light -and this was two thousand years ago...Jesus teaches us that morality comes from Love...A love that is demonstrated in action by us...The love for God, and the love for our neighbor...Jesus teaches us that goodness and morality means much more than a rich man's great wealth and the material possessions he has...Morality and goodness comes from Love, His Father's Love...Jesus shows us that following God is not a matter of simple Pharisaic rituals just to be followed...Nor is it a checklist for us to follow and then we check those things off each day -and then we get to heaven...Life is not just about following the Mosaic Laws or this rule and that rule...It is not enough to just follow the Ten Commandments and think you are moral...Jesus teaches us that when we are angry and have hate in our heart -He goes so far as to compare it to murder...Jesus' thinking on morality is much different than ours...Morality and goodness were very, very important to our LORD...And for some reason, or for one reason or another -man's desires can and does, at times, get in the way of our own personal morality and our goodness, and the improvement of it...
Jesus shows us that morality and goodness are grounded in God, they are grounded in Love...For us to be moral and good, we must show in our actions and our thoughts the love for God and the love for our neighbor...Being made in the image of our Creator and believing in the Trinity, we are social beings and are sensitive to other peoples feelings and opinions...But Jesus again takes it many giant steps further -from being sensitive to another one's feelings, to loving thy neighbor...And when we love each and all our neighbors, a community is set up...Nonbelievers say that this is just the nature of primates and humans, but where did it originally come from...Is it just a randomness that makes us sensitive to other people?...Or is it like the anger and hatred that Jesus talks about and somewhere inside man has this great potential when he believes and follows the morals that Jesus and His Father lay out, there really is a heaven we can reach?...Why hasn't this hatred evolved out of us?...
Faith or randomness -God let's us choose between the two...