One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus taught the sum of the commandments and scripture is in these two commands, and if humanity obeyed these two, there would be no need for any other commandments or laws. The sad observation is we Christians have never stopped debating who a Christian is. Yet blindly, we disobey the most critical two commands.
The pride of a few Christians who believe their one task is to defend the faith against false doctrine is heartbreaking. Heartbreaking because they do it without perceiving the negative impact on other believers and those outside the faith. They judge that because someone does not believe the scripture, the way they interpret it, everyone else is wrong. (Healing a Sarcastic and Critical Spirit)
We must let go of the need to defend God. Jesus never commanded us to be correct and practice our doctrine; He commanded us to love God and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. When there was no New Testament, the message of Christ and the church flourished. Everything else written later in the scripture is the commentary on how to fulfill the first two commandments. Sadly we have focused on analysis instead of living out of love for God and our fellow man.
The truth is many of us miss the mark of true spirituality and love. In our spiritual pride and the need to be proper and correct every one of their error, we are blind to the fault of our way.
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