The Bottom Line

they asked Jesus about the bottom line.

"Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?"

His reply:

"to love God with everything you have...and to love your neighbor as yourself"

love God. love people.

one "clog" (a complaint log [clog] as opposed to a Weblog--[blog] ) i read here and there often expresses his being flumoxed by this phrase...i understand.

what does it mean to love God?
what does it mean to love people?

as i see it, to love God means to honor Him as God--because that is who He is. to honor God as God means to put Him first in all things. even b4 your own self...to choose His way over your way, even when His way is difficult. to love God means to come to Him with a repentent attitude when we fail...to trust in His reconciliation thru Christ with a commitment to try to not do it again...

loving people is similar...to love people is to want God's very best for them. of course, God's very best is a growing relationship with Him thru Jesus...so, when we love people, we are attempting to help them grow in their relationship with Him..to begin one, to continue in one, to restart one...but reconciliation should always be our goal for them. so, at times, it does mean to lovingly lead them to see certain behaviors are wrong...but, our goal should be reconciliation (and our methods should reflect that goal).

but as you can see, the more description we give, the more questions about details we have. this is why fellowship/sermons/bible studies are important. you can't sum up the great commandment in one blog post, or one sermon, or one bible study or one snippet on a church sign or a sound bite on the news or a web page...

so, what's the bottom line for the spiritual life?

love God, love people.

how do you do that? well...you'll just have to come out to church to find out.