UPLFTMNT » The Great Commandment http://uplftmnt.com Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:23:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 en hourly 1 Universal Love – The Great Commandment (part two) http://uplftmnt.com/universal-love-the-great-commandment-part-two/ http://uplftmnt.com/universal-love-the-great-commandment-part-two/#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 14:16:27 +0000 zane http://uplftmnt.com/?p=44 If you are to love your neighbor as yourself, who is your neighbor? This is of course what the Parable of the Good Samaritan is all about, and it’s fascinating to me. Christ says we are to love everyone without regard for race, nationality or any other trait or characteristic. That’s powerful, isn’t it?

Your neighbor could be very different from you – different gender, different race. She might be an immigrant. She might be gay. She might be someone you don’t get along with. But none of that matters because this love is universal, and all-inclusive.

“Universal Love” is the name of a classic Jungle track by 4hero, and it has one verse:

Every star in the sky
tells us how and shows us why
we must all give a Universal Love…

We must all give a universal love including everyone, and without discrimination for anyone.

Related:
The Great Commandment (part one)

]]> http://uplftmnt.com/universal-love-the-great-commandment-part-two/feed/ 0 The Great Commandment (part one) http://uplftmnt.com/the-great-commandment-part-one/ http://uplftmnt.com/the-great-commandment-part-one/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:31:44 +0000 zane http://uplftmnt.com/?p=42 I got married a week ago to the love of my life, and thus I’ve been thinking a lot about love lately. In fact, I’ve only recently come to understand that loving each other is the most important thing we can do in life, second only to loving God. The idea seems simple, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how big that concept is.

Just imagine if the Great Commandment was your life’s mission statement, and you evaluated everything you did, all your major life-decisions, on these verses:

Jesus replied: “‘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.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

How would you live? If you knew that the most important things you could do today were loving God and loving your neighbor, what would you do? It’s deeper than it seems, right? I really like how the senior pastor at my church paraphrases that commandment, “Love God, and love like God.” Maybe you already do this. I know I fall short. But I want to put that commandment at the center of my life.

One of my favorite songs from last year is by Jazzanova, with Phonte on vocals, and it’s called, “Look What You’re Doin’ to Me.” Towards the end of the song, Phonte sings:

There is love for all God’s children
We all breathe in the same sun
We all sleep under the stars at night
We know that we are one
And you’re the one for me

Maybe Phonte’s interpretation of the Great Commandment is, “love God, and love God’s children.” And maybe he’s saying in the last line, “I’m going to display this love most in how I love you (my wife).” I like that.

The Great Commandment seems simple, but I think it’s really huge. And I’m no theologian, but I think that placing these verses at the centers of our lives would be life-changing. Are you already doing this? If so, I’d really like to hear from you…

]]> http://uplftmnt.com/the-great-commandment-part-one/feed/ 1