Put the Cap on the Marker: Erasing the Lines Between Us and Our Neighbors
And chaos is our reality without God. From the very beginning, in Genesis, when God created the world, He hovered over the chaos and spoke order into the chaos. This command is one of the ways God spoke order into the chaos of our relationships.
He knew we would face chaotic relationships – both the annoying and the unacceptable kinds. And, He knew we would be tempted to justify tolerating others and drawing lines between us and them. When the religious leaders asked Jesus, out of the 613 laws, which was the greatest, he answered:
“‘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
The first – Love the Lord your God with all you have – is even more familiar to them than the Golden Rule is to us. They referred to this command as the Shema, and they quoted it daily. And, like the things we do daily – like brushing our teeth, it becomes so familiar, it’s significance is sometimes lost in the repetition. Jesus was saying, “Hmm, which command is most important? You know that one you say everyday? Live it. Don’t let it just be words only, but actually let it seep down into your heart and dictate all of your choices. Everything else flows from your devotion to God.”
But, he doesn’t stop there, even though they only asked for one. He continued, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We attribute this to Jesus in the New Testament, but Jesus was quoting the law in Leviticus 19 which outlines how to treat others, saying “Love your neighbor as yourself” in verse 18. You see, this was God’s command from the beginning.
Interestingly, he says, “the second is like it.” All of your life, every choice you make, flows out of your heart. Let love rule in your heart. Let God rule in your heart. Then, and only then, can you overcome the tangled temptation for sin – like that temptation to tolerate or the temptation to take the cap off that marker and draw some lines between us and them.
I believe God’s heart in giving this command was something like this:
