“We quickly enough feel and weigh what we suffer at the hands of others; but we mind not what others suffer from us.”
Thomas a Kempis
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Jesus Matthew 7: 12
When Jesus equates something with the Law and the Prophets, we should listen up!
In many ways, we struggle to complicate the message of Jesus when it comes to understanding those things He considered really important. If the Law and the Prophets led the way to understanding and peace with God, then when Jesus equates something with them, we need to listen. Those things are really important.
Two times Jesus equates a teaching with the Law and the Prophets. The first is here. Simply treat others as you would want them to treat you. The second is found in Matthew 22 when someone asks Him, “What is the greatest commandment?” His response: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Fascinating and vitally important that we understand that the Law and the Prophets hang on, or are summed up by, our love for God and others, and the practical way in which we are kind to others. We have doctrines that we think are important. We have special sins that we have singled out as important. We have procedures and traditions that we believe are important. But for Jesus – in the eyes of God – that which is truly important can be boiled down to
a. Be nice.
b. Love God.
c. Love others.
Maybe its time for all of us to go back to our Kindergarten Sunday School class and learn, once again, that love matters. How I treat the person next to me matters. In fact, my love for God and for others, and how I live that love out to the people around me, matter more than all the doctrine or convictions I possess.
How humbling to realize that my “great knowledge” is worth very little. God is not impressed by my understanding of spiritual things. To God, what matters most is loving Him, loving others, and treating others as I desire to be treated.
Lord, sometimes I don’t want the Gospel to be simple. I want to complicate things by deciding what is important and what isn’t – in a sense, I want to pick and choose those things that should matter most. But You have already chosen and spoken that which is the most important. May I love You with all that I am. May my love for You live out through my love for others, and my desire to treat them with kindness.