Where Is Your Focus?

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” [Mark 12.28-31]

Love God, love man. Period.

If at any time, we lose focus of this two-fold mandate, we have left the 'straight and narrow' path.

It is far too easy to become entangled with the affairs of this life and drawn away from our love purpose. In fact, if we do not purposefully defend the pursuit of our love purpose, it will falter in priority, replaced by an imposter love for self. This is a battle most lose daily.

The task of loving God and loving man in every circumstance is daunting. Most of us just scratch our heads in wonderment of how it could ever actually happen - it seems so out-of-reach. But this is where Jesus' teaching prior to this conversation must be understood:

Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? [Mark 8.34-37]

We can only begin to understand love for God and man when 'self' is out of the way. 'Self" is always the problem and will always take away from loving God and loving man. 

But, in and of itself, 'self' is not the problem! Pride is the root problem - the one thing pride is always focused on is 'self.'

It is not ironic then, that Jesus used an instrument of death (our cross) as the means of following Him. 

Self-preservation has nothing to do with following Christ and consequently has nothing to do with loving God or loving man.

Father, forgive me for allowing my focus to be on myself...