JDL - Direction Thirty-one - Our response of faith

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV))

God gives, and we are given to; it just does not get any better than this. God gives life at conception. God gives physical life and an eternal soul. Unfortunately, even though God gives life at conception, we inherit our sinful nature from our sinful parents. Thanks be to God that soon after our physical birth into this world, our parents bring us into God’s kingdom through the waters of Holy Baptism. At the point of Baptism then, God gives us even more. He gives us faith. He gives us forgiveness of sins. He puts His name on us claiming us as His own. He writes our names in the book of Life and makes heaven our inheritance. And there is more. God literally saves us (1 Peter 3:21). God gives, and we are left in awe of all that He has given. What do we do? What can we do? God has given us everything, and there is nothing left for us to do. Thanks be to God that He also gives us the ability to respond to all His good gifts and blessings. He gives us the ability to respond though lives lived to His glory which we call sanctification what He motivates in us as well.

When God called the children of Israel out of all the other nations of the world and put His name on them and made them His people, He gave them the Ten Commandments. God’s commandments were given to His people in order to give them a way to live that would set them apart from all the other nations and peoples of the world. Yet, the children of Israel continually disobeyed God’s commandments. They sinned by doing things they should not be doing and by not doing the things they should have been doing. And if we go and look in the mirror, we will see that we are very much like the children of Israel.

When Jesus came, He fulfilled all of God’s laws, ceremonial, civil and moral laws, perfectly. Yet, He did not abolish the law, but fulfilled it and perfected it. When asked about the commandments, Jesus answered how we are to view His commandments today (Matt. 22:37-40, Mark 12:30-31).

God’s commandments are not to be harsh laws and rules but are to be statements of guidance for us giving us encouragement in our response of faith. When Jesus summarized the commandments, He did so with the word “love.” Love is the summary of the commandments. Love is the summary of the commandments because if we could love, that is if we could love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, then we would not have other gods, we would not take His name in vain and we would keep the Sabbath.

Likewise, if we could love our neighbor as ourselves, we would not disobey our parents and those in authority over us, we would not lust after others; instead, we would live chaste and decent lives in word and deed. We would not kill or even hate or hurt others; we would not steal or even have sinful thoughts of begrudging others; we would not speak evil of others; we would not covet. What a wonderful world it would be.

Thanks be to God that even though we are unable to love God and others, in and of ourselves, because of our inborn sinful nature and inclination to sin, there is always forgiveness and His help in doing those things which we are unable to do. Thanks be to God that He does work in and through us to bring about a response of faith in loving Him and others, even if it is imperfectly.

A Jesus-directed life is never a perfect life, but it is a forgiven life and one wherein we have His continued encouragement in loving Him and others as He first loves us.

Think About
Have you ever had a bad thought? Have you ever hurt or harmed someone, not necessarily by something you did, but by something you did not do? Did you realize that these are also ways we sin? Yet, do you realize that Jesus has taken care of all these sins on the cross?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your commandments which are not burdensome. Forgive us because we daily sin much and are in need of Your forgiveness. Forgive us for our sins of thought, word and deed, our sins of omission, not doing as we ought, and our sins of commission, doing as we should not. Thank You for forgiveness, and guide us always with Your help to live lives to Your glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.