Jesus is Simple
Jesus is simple.
You must love the Lord your God with all that you have. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is just as important: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.
It’s simple. Love God. Love others. This is what it means to be a Christian. This is how you know you’re “saved” (if there is such a thing).
Don’t complicate the Gospel with your need to be right.
Well said. I've been reading your blog for a while and I'm constantly amazed at how you're able to write so little little and yet say so much.
CP – thanks so much, man. It's a pleasure and readers like you make all the difference! Thanks again for the encouragement. Peace.
Good thoughts …
But I wonder if there's one thought that should be added – Jesus said “love others as yourself.”
So should it be Love God, love yourself, love others? Because according to Jesus you have to love yourself before you love others.
I like this quote from Eric Hoffer …
The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
This is wonderful. A friend of mine has recently been asking a lot of questions of me regarding what Christians believe about this or that. I'm Catholic, so I fall back on our catechism a lot in my explanations to him, but I always feel as though in my attempt to give him enough information I'm steering him wrong. This gets at the heart of what it's all about.
Well said.
I don't know of very many who love themselves. We primp, we do what we want and climb over people to get our way. Why? Because we love ourselves. Yes, there are some who suffer from altered reality but, as a whole, we love ourselves and will do about anything to put ourselves and our comfort first.
I don't know of very many who love themselves…I meant DON'T love themselves.
Good point. I think this is largely missing from the Church =(
Saved? If there is such a thing? I mean the bible talks a lot about it! “save”, “saves” or “saved” “salvation” is used over 120 times in the NT (granted, not all are references to being “saved” as you mention above, but most are. http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=sav...
It occurs often enough that we all need some way to explain it, how do you explain it?
Good distinction. I think my understanding (and I would argue the popular cultural understanding) of the word “saved” is different than what the Bible suggests.
“Saved.” in many evangelical circles, references a one-time event. While one can have a salvific moment that they can point to, the Biblical concept, as whole, promotes a process of being saved. Out life in Christ is filled with particular moments of “being saved.” We are always being saved … From sin, brokenness, despair, destruction and, ultimately, death.
Some could say it semantics, but I think it's much deeper. That's why I wrote “if there is such a thing.” I'm a big believer in being saved as a process. Not so much as an event.
Does that make any sense?
yes =)
Good point. I think this is largely missing from the Church =(
Saved? If there is such a thing? I mean the bible talks a lot about it! “save”, “saves” or “saved” “salvation” is used over 120 times in the NT (granted, not all are references to being “saved” as you mention above, but most are. http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=sav...
It occurs often enough that we all need some way to explain it, how do you explain it?
Good distinction. I think my understanding (and I would argue the popular cultural understanding) of the word “saved” is different than what the Bible suggests.
“Saved.” in many evangelical circles, references a one-time event. While one can have a salvific moment that they can point to, the Biblical concept, as whole, promotes a process of being saved. Out life in Christ is filled with particular moments of “being saved.” We are always being saved … From sin, brokenness, despair, destruction and, ultimately, death.
Some could say it semantics, but I think it's much deeper. That's why I wrote “if there is such a thing.” I'm a big believer in being saved as a process. Not so much as an event.
Does that make any sense?
yes =)