I love my kids. Very much! Sometimes, though, they suggest things that are, shall we say, extremely impractical. Spaghetti Slide, for one, sounds amazing, but I'd hate to clean it up. From Brushing our teeth before desert, a bath in ice cream, to many similar suggestions that seem fun, interesting, dangerous and uncomfortable, we get a slew of these on a near daily basis. I love our boys imagination, but such suggestions are just not doable. One thing Jesus never did, whether practical or not, was suggest things. When Jesus said do things, he expected them to be done. He even said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" (John 14:15). This wasn't a suggestion. This wasn't something that He said "if you do this, that'd be great." Point blank, He said that love for Him was in the obedience to what He said! Jesus' Father was the same way! Obedience was the greatest act of love one could show God Almighty! When asked which of God's commands were the greatest, Jesus responded like this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40
All of God's commands fall in line with Loving Him with everything we are, and loving our neighbor-as if we would want such love done to us! As I said before, Jesus didn't make suggestions. What is more, He equates our love for Him by how well we obey His commands. So if He says the greatest thing we can do is loving God, and similarly, love our neighbors sacrificially (just like we love God), then what must we do? How would our lives change if we obeyed this command? How would our homes and churches and businesses look if we took these to heart? It's not a great suggestion. Let us then live to love, and watch God work as His love pours in to us, then out in to those we met every day.
