34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40
I have listened to at least three thousand sermons in my life thus far, with many more to come, I am sure. I remember only a few of them, usually the atrocious ones or the brilliant ones. I have forgotten the vast majority. Not that they were entirely forgettable. The brain can only store so much information, and my brain has decided not to store that many sermons. I do believer however, that they have left an impression on me, doing their quiet work in the soul, just as the many words of instruction and advice I have received over the years from my parents, teachers and friends have influenced me, though I do not remember many of those words either.
Gerald Sittser
68% of the American population identifies as Christian.
A disciple during the time of Jesus was a Jewish person who had been invited by a rabbi [teacher] to come and follow him for a long period of time.
“Disciple” had less to do with what you did or could do, and more to do with who you were actively following.
BEING WITH HIM
35 And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Matthew 9:35-36
This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Joshua 1:8
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:6
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
James 1:27
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 John 3:17-18
3 Mary therefore took a pound[a] of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii[b] and given to the poor?”
John 12:3-5
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Matthew 23:27-28
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40
37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40
THE HIGHEST PRIORITY OF A DISCIPLE IS TO LOVE GOD.
19 We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
WE LEARN TO LOVE GOD AS WE ARE LOVED BY GOD
The most important thing that happens between God and the human soul is to love and be loved.
Kallistos Katfygiotis
As a general rule, we become more loving by experiencing love, not by hearing about it in a lecture or reading about it in a book. Psycologists’ basic rule of thumb is that we are loving to the degree that we have been loved. This is why it’s so much easier for those who were loved by their parents or caregivers in their early years to give and receive love as adults. That said, no family of origin is healthy enough to transform us into the kind of love we see in Jesus, and no family is dysfunctional enough to keep us from become people of love in Jesus. All of us have the potential to grow and mature into people of agape. But to do so, we have to experience the love of God.
John Mark Comer
One way of knowing involves learning information about God; it is doctrinal. Another way of knowing leads to union with God; it is mystical.
Gerald Sittser
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family[c] in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
Ginōskō—know: to feel
“I look at Him, He looks at me, and we are happy.”
What’s your response when you are aware of your sin? If you’re like me, you know Christ died for that, and you’re grateful. But just to show how grateful you are, or to seal the deal, you do a bit of psychological self-inflicted pain to top it off. Not., of course, to self-consciously add to Christ’s work. Heaven forbid. Just to let Him know how much you care, to make it clear that you’re a serious Christian. Nothing physical. Just a bit of externalized obedience or forma...
