{"id":9867,"date":"2022-12-17T00:00:39","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=9867"},"modified":"2022-12-17T14:48:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-17T04:48:21","slug":"the-essence-of-our-existence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/12\/17\/the-essence-of-our-existence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Essence of Our Existence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 22:34-40 34<\/em><\/sup>But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together about it. 35<\/sup>And one of them, a lawyer, questioned him for the purpose of testing him. 36<\/sup>\u201cTeacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?\u201d 37<\/sup>And he said to him, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind. 38<\/sup>This is the great and first commandment. 39<\/sup>And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40<\/sup>On these two commandments hang the whole law and the Prophets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Pharisees return to test Jesus again (verse 15) after hearing about the challenges of the Sadducees. These two groups usually did not get along, like many liberals and conservatives today, but they both agreed that Jesus was a problem. The word silenced<\/em> (ephim<\/em>\u014d<\/em>sen<\/em>) can also mean muzzle an animal. The image is humorous; Jesus put a muzzle on Sadducees\u2019 mouths by his clear and truthful logic, and they could not say anything more. In modern terms, these two groups were in the fighting ring with Jesus, tag wrestling and tacking turns, but getting beat every time.<\/p>\n

They decide to try another tactic and send in a lawyer for the specific purpose of testing and trapping Jesus. This testing was a form of indirect trial. Even back then, people thought that lawyers had it all figured out and could solve any problem. The lawyer\u2019s question is a challenging one, especially from a Pharisee\u2019s perspective because there are so many laws in the Old Testament from which to choose. If Jesus chose the wrong one\u2014from their perspective, then he would be in trouble with them. The lawyer\u2019s question assumes that some commandments are more important than others. Any choice Jesus made would put other commandments lower, and so he would be trapped, at least from the Pharisees\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 answer to the question has rung throughout history. The Pharisees were experts at the law, and so Jesus quotes from the law, thus silencing any further argument from them. It is obvious that Jesus was a scholar of the Scriptures and had studied and memorized them. Perhaps to the surprise of these religious scholars, Jesus did not pick one of the Ten Commandments written by God\u2019s own hand. The first in importance and great command comes from Deuteronomy 6:5. In Matthew\u2019s version, Jesus changes the word \u201cmight\u201d (as in strength and ability) in the original passage to mind<\/em>. Mark version adds \u201cmind\u201d as the third element and keeps \u201cmight\u201d as the fourth element.<\/p>\n

Love <\/em>(agap<\/em>\u0113<\/em>seis<\/em>) should be the primary quality of every Christian\u2019s life. God is the author of love and gives his love to us so that we can love others (1 John 4:7-8). God\u2019s love is unconditional towards us. Our love for God must be total and complete (hol<\/em>\u0113<\/em>). Loving God is the primary indicator of the consecrated life. We were created for the very purpose of loving God. We learn what it means to love God in this lifetime. The three areas Jesus quotes (in Matthew\u2019s version, at least) encompass our whole being.<\/p>\n

The three terms used have a lot of overlap; differentiating between these often ends up circular, but some nuance may beintended. The heart<\/em> (kardia<\/em>) in the Bible represents our inner person where we make decisions and give our devotion to God. The soul<\/em> (psych\u0113<\/em>) represents our essence that gives us existence, the deep part of our being that makes us human. After God breathed life into Adam in Genesis 2:7, Adam became a living \u201csoul.\u201d The mind<\/em> (dianoia<\/em>) represents our ability to know good and evil and to make appropriate decisions about these. The mind can be deceived by the evil in the world and corrupted by sin, but it can also be transformed into Christ\u2019s likeness. Our love for God should be the foundation and filter for all behavior (ethics).<\/p>\n

The second great commandment comes as a result of the first and comes from Leviticus 19:18, 34. When we love God, we can love one another as God has created us to do. God created us with a drive for self-preservation, survival, and to make our lives better and more comfortable. Most people, if they have not been deceived by the world and ensnared by sin, have some form of love of themselves. We should take that same type of love that seeks the best and extend it to others. We should want their best and find ways to help them live well and experience all that God has created them for them. As the laws in Leviticus show, loving one\u2019s neighbor in this way should become the basis for all other social relationships.<\/p>\n

Every other command in the Bible somehow relates back to these two primary commandments. All the ethical and theological teachings of the prophets reflect these commandments. Love should serve as the focus of all we do. If we love God and neighbor as Jesus states here, we will act differently in every aspect of our lives. Love is the primary evidence of faith. Love is the way faith is lived out in obedience.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 22:34-40 34But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together about it. 35And one of them, a lawyer, questioned him for the purpose of testing him. 36\u201cTeacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?\u201d 37And he said to him, \u201cYou shall love the Lord your God with your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9867"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9882,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9867\/revisions\/9882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}