Faith: An expression of love
To be accomplished in science or other technical study often requires a deep knowledge of all sorts of building blocks that have come before. If you’ve ever flipped through a college-level textbook after years of being away from it, you know what I’m talking about.
There are some things in life that are just that complicated. Thank goodness faith isn’t like that. Or is it? Formal prayers, church liturgy, rules and regulations — if anything in this world can be considered to be complicated, perhaps faith is it.
The Pharisees certainly felt that way. Part of being a good Jew in the time of Jesus was doing all sorts of things in a precisely prescribed way. And many Jewish people would diligently and faithfully strive to live out and obey the 600-plus laws that were “on the books” so-to-speak. Needless to say, this was a pretty complicated way to go about one’s daily life. And missteps were seen truly as affronts to God, as acts of disobedience —- acts which disappointed and in some cases angered God.
And yet, when Jesus is asked by the Pharisees what the most important command is, Jesus answers, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” And he goes on to say, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” And quite honestly this is not controversial; Any pious Jew would most likely answer in a similar way. But then Jesus adds something that was probably aimed at getting them to wonder about something much deeper. He says, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
It seems that Jesus was trying to get them to see that the elaborate system of rules they had devised was not the core of what it meant to live a life of faith — to be faithful. Love. That’s it. Love. Four little letters. Love.
The whole law was built on those two ideas, those two truths. Love of God and love of neighbor. Adherence to the rules and regulations isn’t necessarily what is pleasing to God. Love is what ultimately pleases God. Love is at the heart of true faithfulness. Love is actually the essence of who God is. If we ever start doing things for any other reason than love — we’re doing something wrong.
Each of us can embrace the fullness of the Christian life, the fullness of a life in, with, and for God, right now — in this moment, in this time and place. We don’t need a lifetime to get “good” at it.
We just need to accept and embrace and live out a very simple principle — love. That’s what it’s all about. It simply takes an open heart and sincere willingness to put God before all else. It’s not that complicated. Challenging? Yes. Difficult? At times. But complicated? Only if we’re doing it wrong.
Faith expresses itself in love. Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus wanted to make sure the Pharisees knew that. And he wants us to know it too.