As I come to understand the depth of the turmoil people feel as they struggle with the First Commandment, with putting God or government first, I better understand why our congregations and Sunday school classes and friendships are being torn apart. We must take this struggle seriously and provide tools: spiritual foundation, community and security for people willing to face this issue at this time.
We dare not give our government or our country the allegiance or worship that God alone deserves. If we put our trust and our need for security into earthly, human constructs, we will ultimately be disappointed and humankind will be less well served. A little pessimism here, some cynicism there… taken together, it adds up to despair, causing us to wonder how or even whether things could ever get better.
The day before my daughter started kindergarten we drove as a family to a silent school, where nearly one thousand students would enter the next day. We walked around the playgrounds and the bus loading zones as we prayed for the students that would spend much of the next year of their lives there. It was difficult and painful getting to a sitting position on the side of the bed.
Immediately I turned to God for help. I recalled how staunchly Daniel see Daniel, chapter 6 and the three young Hebrew men see Daniel, chapter 3 refused to worship any but the one God. Daniel came out of the lions' den without a scratch, and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the fire withoutbeing harmed in any way.
Their faithwas vindicated, and their God was glorified by those who witnessed their deliverance. It was the same furnace, the same day, and apparently all conditions were the same.
There had to be a difference, and as far as I could determine, the difference was their beliefs. The soldiers believed in the power of the fire. The three Hebrew captives believed fervently that God was more powerful than anything else, and they were protected -- not from being thrown into the furnace but from being harmed right in the midst of the flame. What a practical demonstration of the indestructible relationship between God and man! I was familiar with how the Bible compares the tender, loving nature of God to a shepherd always protecting his sheep, and how it speaks of God as a loving Father providing for all the needs of His children.
I could feel the presence of that divine Love comforting and caring for me. The fear just dissolved. Then I couldreason more clearly and calmly and pray more effectively. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. For me, things in my life are shifting in an unexpected or unthought of direction and that first command right now means to me to Trust in God—Entrust to Him and Trust Him with all that I am and could ever hope or imagine or not imagine to be.
This morning I was listening to Indelible Grace, a music group I like that puts old hymns to contemporary music — and here is a verse from William Cowper based on the close of Habbakuk that reminds me of what you just shared:. Though vine nor fig tree neither, their wanted fruit should bear Though all the fields should wither, Nor flocks or herds be there Yet God the same abiding, His praise shall tune my voice For while in Him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
What a great question! But I do not think you can seperate the 1st commandment from the second. I thought of a couple of verses the 1st one was in James.
Can that kind of faith save anyone? What good does that do? Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. The other verses I thought of were in 1John.
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love — not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. I think a good barometer of how well I am doing the first commandment, is how well I am doing the second commandment. We agreed that loving our neighbor is evidence if we love God. I believe that much of this fulfillment is the action of taking what was an outward oriented law and making it an inward oriented law.
The law of the Old Testament was full of physical prohibitions, but as Jesus interacts with the OT law in Matthew 5 He shows how the laws must be obeyed within our hearts and not merely in our physical actions. It is not enough to restrain ourselves from murder; fulfillment of that law means we do not even entertain unkind thoughts about any person. He says that our righteousness has to exceed the Pharisees, who obeyed each law perfectly.
Our righteousness has to extend even to our thoughts. We have to learn to love God with our whole mind, with every thought. Just as Jesus came to be the fulfillment of the law for all people, individual Christians each have to learn the fulfillment of the law in their own life. A young Christian learns the basic rules, whether they are young in age or just new to the faith. They have to learn what actions please God and what actions He says not to do. This is the basic Old Testament law.
As each of us matures, we have to allow the Spirit to teach us the fulfillment of the laws. We have to learn to internalize the law, to obey with our hearts and minds. If I am speaking honestly, I would say that the majority of adult Christians are pretty good at obeying the outward law.
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