Mathew 22:37 "Jesus answered: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind"

Jesus was answering a question posed to him, perhaps by a detractor or may be he was a sincere seeker! In either case, the answer is what I am trying to highlight and understand better here!

Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. In another place, Jesus speaks of this very command as being the gist of all that the law and the prophets are trying to say! So this commandment is elementary and crucial. It is the Bible in “One Sentence”. It’s the scriptures in a nutshell. It’s like the banner that announces our advent into an assemblage of philosophy, theology, practical directions and incidents that do not just make us marvel but also uplift our soul. So, one cannot be interpreting and comprehending the deeper facts and truths and the mysteries of the word without having noticed this “billboard” command!

It does come into the notice of everyone but the question is do we really understand its demand! I think, God is so upfront about it that no one will have any excuse if he belittles the weight of what is required in and through this command!

So what’s there hidden in this command that we would miss it? Isn’t it so very plain and clear and isn’t the response equal to what most of us are already doing! We all do love God with all that we can!

Do we? Maybe a deeper look would help us determine where we stand!

First of all, let me look at where most of us are! Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commands”! Many of us will jump up to that and declare that the response expected from us is “that”! Obey his commands and teachings and when we do that, our response to loving God is well-defined and well-done! Is it? To me, this statement of Jesus sounds more like a warning! If you love me, obey my commands! Jesus is surely not defining love here. He is stating that the minimum expected of us when we say we love him is obeying his commands! It’s the bottom line. For heaven’s sake, it is not the meaning of love, not the complete direction to define our response.
Strangely, most of us are happy to have understood this fact of obeying all his commands. We remind ourselves and others about it and strive to reach there. We often restrain ourselves just to that and define our response to God’s love within the precincts of it! The sadder part however is that a majority of us never even reach there! So we do not even meet the basic and minimum requirement of loving God let alone respond in the way God demands it!
What is the meaning of what Jesus is laying down!? Well, three things are very clear straight on.
1) The response to this command has to be voluntary2) The response has to be supreme, the best
3) The response has to abiding, consistentNow, perhaps we do know and understand the above aspects of what this commandment says. But, is there anything more to it that this? Does this command imply more that what is obvious! Look at the following!

1) The love for God should control our lives. It should be the overwhelming thought through the day from the time of waking up to the time of lying down. In everything we see, speak, think and do, God should be one of the constants. At times he needs to be the focus, at times he needn’t be, but all times he needs to be there. There is nothing said or done without factoring in this element!
2) The desire to please God should overshadow every other desire. If the first point was in the mind, the second is in the expression. The desire always should be to find out what would please our God and the effort would be to do it. Just as in any love, to increase the pleasure of the beloved is primary!

3) There needs to be sympathy for those who love God! Meeting anyone who also loves God should excite us! This paves way for us to meet the demand of the word when it exhorts us to love our brother who can be seen as a necessary add-on to loving God who cannot be seen!

So where are me and you now? Obviously the above three points are still not the “everything” about God’s expected response from us. But when God has given “His all”, what’s stopping us to give him more with each passing day! Lord, please help me to be involved with you with all of my mind, soul, heart and strength! Won’t you join with me in saying so!

1 Thessalonians 2:1 "You know, brothers, that our visit to you was not a failure"

The whole chapter is so enlightening, especially for those who have a zeal and passion to share the gospel. It sheds light on how Paul brought the gospel to the Thessalonians. As expected, Paul surely worked a lot on what he was going to preach (the content), but then, here in this scripture portion, he suddenly speaks about several more aspects that I now realize as things that actually would have made him say with a lot of surety and conviction– “it was not a failure”.

The gospel sharing, for Paul, was more than just a message or a sermon. There were pre-requisites. There were attachments. There were sequels. It was more of a package than just an item. It outlived the thirty minutes or the hour that the message that brought the gospel would have lasted. It involved his very life! I work very dedicatedly on my sermons and messages. I work hard on the content and garnish it so as to make it pleasing and acceptable especially for those who might be hearing such a message for the first time! But in the light of this portion there are some crucial questions that I now regularly ask myself! Do I really think beyond the message? Is the gospel that is entrusted to me only to be limited to words? Do just my words enter the lives of my audience or do I too bother to ‘at least’ peep in too!

Do words alone bring about the greatest miracle – ‘the transformation of the human heart’? Maybe yes! But then it seems more so a consequence of God’s grace. I believe that the words do bring about the conception of faith, but the transformation of the heart and eventually the lives, perhaps needed many more ingredients! A review of the Lord’s own example convicts me on that front. What he spoke was important for sure but what he did and how he lived was equally, if not more, important! He reached out to the people and like his true disciple Paul did later on, and for that matter every other apostle, Jesus poured Himself out like a drink offering! What about me? Have I too joined the band wagon of motivational speakers, albeit at a very small level!
What were the other ingredients mentioned in this portion? There are several. I shall deal with two of these. Paul says that they never came to the Thessalonians with flattering speech or even a pretext of greed. Now anyone will agree that the motive behind the usage of flattering speech is also greed. It’s only that the flatterers are the obviously greedy and perhaps not as dangerous as the other kind – those that have hidden greed! I think the more important clarification required here is - is greed only related to money? If I expect anything or even a favor in recompense for my act(s) or deed(s), will it not also be a kind of greed? I know we call it expectation, but if we dig deeper into the roots, does it not look more and more like greed? If there is something we expect out of it for ourselves, it is obviously not a selfless act. I realize that I have so many times done things only because they have done it for me earlier or because I anticipate them to do it for me in the future! If I am looking at a success of the Thessalonian kind, I need to shed greed in all its hues and saturation.

Paul also says they never sought the glory of men! I am sure most of us want a clean chit on this one! But again I think we are mistaken. We commonly make the mistake of assuming that heavy terms like “glory” are attached only with the highest positions of whatever we are a part of! I mean, its glory only if we fight for the top honors! What about the recognitions we seek for the small things we do? Does it hurt us if it continues to remain unnoticed? Do we feel we are doing a thankless job and continue on it with a grudge? Does it hurt us even more if someone else, whose efforts are much less receives greater accolades and attention despite our faithfulness since time immemorial! So we do seek the glory of men! Paul was an apostle and because of his authority, perhaps he could demand it, but he didn’t! What about us? Will we not fight for acknowledgments and credits that are rightfully ours? Of course (unlike the apostle Paul)! And then we pray loud, “All glory belongs to You God Almighty”! I don’t know about you, but I have made this mistake.

I want a success of the Thessalonian kind and I am convinced it comes only if there is a Pauline kind of care about even the smallest of things that define our attitude and behavior. I am reminded of a principle I heard long back. Our thoughts define our beliefs, which in turn define our expectations, and that our attitude, and attitude fashions our behavior and behavior our life! I would add - our success cannot outclass our life!