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Which
Commandment
Is First?
About Revival
First obey: the great
commission or the greatest commandment?
Christians everywhere have taught and been
taught the command of Jesus to go into all the world and share
the Gospel- and well they should. Millions, over the centuries,
have come into the kingdom of God because of the obedient
fulfillment of the great commission.
However many Christians do not feel
comfortable in sharing the Gospel--some even feel guilty for not
doing so. They have not been taught to get to know Jesus
personally, to love Him, to desire to obey him. Jesus said "If
you love me you will obey me". Trying to obey without a loving
relationship with our Lord is exactly what the Pharisees did
during the ministry of Jesus. They were relying on their own
"works" without allowing God to prepare them for ministry
through the communication that comes out of a personal loving
relationship. That is exactly what happens today. Christians try
to obey the great commission without first obeying what Jesus
called the greatest commandment.
They asked Jesus: what was the greatest
commandment? We all know His answer "Love the Lord your God with
all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Then He said the 2nd
greatest command is like the first--we are to love our neighbor
as our self, (to want the best for them as we want the best for
ourselves). The 2nd is like the 1st because when we love God, we
love who He loves--He loves us and our neighbors. To obey the
2nd greatest command; it is necessary to first obey the greatest
command. The progression is to (1) love God (2) love who He
loves--our neighbor and (3) out of love for our neighbor, share
the Gospel. The 1st and 2nd commands are so alike or
inter-connected that obedience of the command to share the
Gospel becomes a very natural thing. Surely then, the great
commission is the third greatest commandment. But, we should not
begin with the 3rd greatest--we need to begin with the 1st.
If we are not loving God in an active
exchange of love, we surely cannot love our neighbor with God's
kind of love. And the key to loving God is to consistently
receive His love--to be motivated and empowered by the love of
the God of the universe. If we don't receive God's love, we
cannot give it to our neighbor. But, if we have a personal
loving relationship with our heavenly Father, we love who He
loves--His love passing through us causes us to want the very
best for our neighbor. Of course, the very best is Jesus. So
when we love the Lord and our neighbor, we want to fulfill the
great commission. Here we have two ways of fu1f1lling the great
commission. Without a personal loving relationship with our
Lord, we love our neighbor with human love. If we don't love our
neighbor with God's love, the only desire to fulfill the great
commission comes from our emotions or a sense of duty or a
desire to "keep the law. This, of course, is used by God because
when the Word of God is presented, it never "returns
void"--without effect (Isa 55: 11). But the Christian that is
doing his duty is not benefited because God's love does not pass
through him. The great commission can be fulfilled in this way
but that is not God's intention. He wants us to be servants as
Jesus was a servant--a real servant wants the very best for
those he serves (God's kind of love). With a servant's heart;
the Holy Spirit enters in (Acts 1:8)--then we are not only more
effective in fulfilling the great commission, but we are built
up in God's grace through the activity of a personal loving
relationship with our heavenly Father... that is revival!
Our heavenly Father loves us very much and
wants us to return His love--to be at home with Him now and
forever. Many people have repented of their sin and received
Jesus as their Savior and then, because of some circumstance,
have withdrawn--they have never entered into a continuing
personal relationship with God the Father through Jesus our
Lord.
They received the love of God as they
received His loving forgiveness. But they did not realize they
could dwell in God's love--to have a permanent home with Him
through an on-going loving personal relationship. The temptation
is to look upon salvation as a one-time experience that
qualifies us for heaven; but it is so much more than that. To be
saved from our old sin nature and actually enter into a new life
with our heavenly Father is surely the greatest blessing of God.
But there is a second blessing and that is to have a permanent,
ongoing relationship with our Lord. Jesus described it as
abiding in Him or being in union with Him.
The promotion of the teaching of a personal
loving relationship with our Lord is, a sure way to revival. It
will not only put down legalistic thinking about the great
commission but it will enrich many Christian lives with the
power of an exchange of love with God. Ater all, He created us
for fellowship and without relationship, there is no fellowship.
With fellowship there is revival.
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