A simple, yet haunting, question has been on mind for several years now. As I have sought to mature in my faith, my spirituality, and my commitment to being a follower of Jesus Christ, I have come face to face with His words “Follow me.” I recall on an early morning three years ago hearing Jesus whisper to me. I was brushing my teeth, minding my own business when he said these words: “Eric, follow me.” Since then, I have spent a fair amount of time attempting to answer that call, as well as pondering what it means and what it looks like. Because I like to write, the following made it to paper (and a whole lot more actually).
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 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 Prophets hang on these two commandments.
1. I want to begin my contemplation of what it means to follow Jesus by looking at this passage of Scripture taken from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 22:34-40. In this scripture Christ shows what he holds as the two most important commands that exist for those who would follow him. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. In other words: Love God with all of your being, and love others. The Way hinges on these two commands, that is what Jesus says. Two commands! Simple! If I do these two things I am following the Way. Yet these two seemingly simple commands must be contemplated, pondered thoughtfully, for while they are simple there is a deeper understanding to be sought (I think). Jesus said that if we love him we will keep his commands (John 14:15,21). Evidence then that one loves God is that one follows these two commands. So I feel that I need to clearly understand them and must ask: Do I?
2. What does it mean then to love God with all your heart, soul and mind? This is a call to love God on every level of one’s consciousness, on every level of one’s being. If the heart is the spirit, then how do I love God with my spirit? The spiritual Self is difficult to define. It is that part of myself which lies at the core of my being. It is the innermost and most real part of my identity and existence, it is that part which exists forever more and communes most intimately with God who is Spirit himself. It is this point of communion that captures my imagination. My spirit is that part of my being which engages with God in relationship, it is the point of contact. When Jesus tells us to love God with all of our heart, he is asking us to enter into a relationship with God. Now this opens up a whole host of problems, for it is in our hearts that we also must deal with the reality of our fallen Self and our sin. To love God with all of our heart means that something needs to be done about that which is in our spirits, which blocks us from being able to love him with all of our heart. It is this challenge that is presented to the person who would seek to know and love God. This call to commit the very centre of our being to relationship is at the core of keeping the first command. Thus the Way that we are to follow is to respond to this command and enter into the relationship that God desires to have with us. I would suggest that the command is profoundly relational in character.
3. Let us consider the soul and the mind the other two realms of our being that Jesus tells us we are to love God with. Can we separate the soul and the mind from the heart (spirit)? Or are they not a part of the heart, but words that we can use to describe the functions of the spirit? My goal here is not to discuss the metaphysical nature of man so I will simply say that I view the heart, soul and mind as all part of the human spirit. The soul and the mind contribute to the goal of the heart, which is to love God. Thus to love God with all of our soul means that the activities and state of the soul are to be such that they move us towards deeper love and relationship with God. It is often thought that our emotions are a part of the soul’s activity. So let us use the example of an emotion to try and deepen our understanding. We are feeling beings who experience a vast range of emotions: anger, anxiety, happiness, excitement etc... we view them as being negative and positive states. If our emotions, or emotional state is such that it hinders us from being able to love God with our soul (and mind and heart) then we are not following the command. But let us not lose heart! If the basis of the command is relational, as I have suggested, then there is hope to live with our emotions and obey the command. Let us now look at an example: If I am bound up by anxious feelings regarding the future (as I often am) this reveals a lack of trust on my part of God’s sovereignty over my life and a breakdown of relationship is shown to exist, for if I love him I will trust him. But as I said above let us not lose hope! Anxiety itself is not wrong (nor is any emotion for that matter) it is my response that matters. God knows that we will face anxiety and in his love for us tells us to not only share our worries with him but also to cast them upon him (1 Pet.5:7; see also Matthew chapter 6). He will care for us and help us overcome our anxiety. He offers a solution based in relationship, and our response is based on our relationship with him. I use this example to try and show a possible way in which the soul contributes to the goal of the heart, which is a love relationship with God.
The same is true of loving God with all of our mind. To love God with all of our mind would seem to mean that our thoughts and ways of thinking contribute to furthering our relationship with God. If our ways of thinking and the activities of our mind prevent or hinder us from loving God then we are not following the command he has given us. The ways in which we think about him, others and the world around us need to be such that they move us towards loving him more and deepening our relationship with him. One of the challenges we face here is that we tend to limit our relationship with God to our intellectual understanding of who he is and his ways. But knowledge of him is not enough. Our knowledge must become more than mere understanding and contribute to our relationship with him. At this point I am on the borders of what some call mysticism or spiritual thinking, but I must resist entering that discussion and save it for another time.
4. The first command then is to love God and this love is expressed within the context of a relationship with him that takes place on every level of our being. It is important to realize that this relationship is made possible by Christ himself, for how could I enter into such an intimate relationship with God if not for the redemptive work of his son? It is Christ through his death and resurrection that has made this first command one that we can actually fulfill and follow.
5. If the first command rests on a relational foundation so then does the second command: Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus even tells us that this command is like the first. So let us ask the question: What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? First I must define who I understand my neighbor to be. In my thinking the neighbor is anyone I come into relational contact with, whether it be for five minutes or a lifetime.
6. The command here is to love people; love others. The word “love” is one of those words that means so much to different people. It is simple and dynamically complex. Christ said that there was no greater act of love than that of laying down one’s life for another (John 15:13), foreshadowing his own act of love in laying down his life for humanity on the cross. The greatest act of love that we can offer then is to lay down our lives for others. This is a striking statement for it causes us to realize that to love others is to put them ahead of ourselves in every way. We set aside our own desires and purposes for the sake of others, we become selfless and set aside selfishness. To love our neighbor is to be willing to put their needs ahead of ours. We become less self centered and become focused on others.
7. There is a moral standard set in motion by this command which is fairly obvious: don’t steal from others, don’t cheat them, don’t harm them etc... There is a common sense to it. But love is much more than a moral set of rules. Love is about relationship, unbroken and whole relationship. This whole and healthy relational reality is made possible through Christ. Through him we can enter into a whole and unbroken relationship with the living God. Our relationship with him is the model upon which our relationship with others is to be based. Out of the love that flows in our relationship with God flows the love that we have for people. If this is true, then there is a spiritual dynamic that is at work. I would suggest that our capacity to love others is directly connected to the level of intimacy that we have with God. The more we come to love God, the greater our capacity to love others will become. It is now possible to say then that the first command is about cultivating a relationship with God and the second command is about cultivating relationship with others, a cultivation made possible by pursuing the first command (here again I am speaking of whole, unbroken and healthy relationship, a depth of relational reality made possible through Christ).
8. There is another dimension in the second command which I find striking: Love your neighbor as yourself. To love another as you love yourself presents us with an intriguing idea. It would seem to suggest that to the degree which I love myself I am able to love my neighbor. Is there a spiritual economy to be considered here? If I despise myself will I despise others? If I do not accept myself will I be unable to accept others? If this is true it means that if we want to fulfill the command to love others we must come to a place wherein we love and accept ourselves so that the depth of love that we have for others can be significant. Here then we realize the importance of Christ’s transforming work in our spirit. It is through him that we become able to love and accept ourselves because of his redemptive work. Before he embraced us and began his work of transformation within us we lived under the oppression of shame and guilt brought about by our sin nature. I am speaking here now about a spiritual reality. In our spirits we were limited in our ability to love ourselves because our spirits were aware of their fallen states. But through Christ’s redemption sin is overcome and forgiven, and we are becoming a new creation within. Because of the healing of our natures that he is effecting within our spirits we are becoming able to love and accept ourselves. Therefore, our love for people will increase and become more significant as we come to increasingly love and accept ourselves. Even in this dimension then we see the importance of relationship on a certain level. How we relate to our Selves is vital to our ability to fulfill this second command.
To love others is not easy. To love others as ourselves is even more difficult. In an era where the Self is at the centre of most people's lives, we find that Jesus is still just as much a radical now as he was during his life. I have found that the first command comes easily to me. I love God very much. The second command is where true effort has been and is required on my part. I am a solitary person who enjoys being alone. I used to use this characteristic as an excuse to isolate myself from people in general, but the truth was that I did not want to love others. I share this because I can now say that change is possible, that headway along the road of this command can be made. Today I have a love for others that I would not have thought possible before. This change of heart came not through any dramatic spiritual experience other than Jesus reminding me consistently that if I truly loved him, then I would love the people around me to. Graciously, he has walked along side me in this and has softened my heart. It has taken time and some conscious effort on my part, but the change is happening. As followers of Jesus this ability to love people genuinely is perhaps the greatest key to sharing the truth of the Good News in 2007. Look around you, and you will not have to look very far or hard, and you will see people simply in need of someone who will love and accept them.
EHJ
Thanks for your comments Brad.
I agree with you that following Jesus means to go where he goes. It means to participate with him in what he is doing. The very words 'follow me' imply that we are going somewhere and we are going to do something. This article is the first in a series that I've written. As a whole all of them look at what it means to follow him from different angles based on various scriptures. In this article I wanted to basically say that there is a foundation for us to stand on as we set out to follow him, and that is to love God with all we've got and to love our neighbours as ourselves. The practical living out of these commands follows suit. You give a good example in that you loved your friends enough to get involved when they needed help. Had you no real love for them you probably would not have bothered. And if you had no real love for Jesus you wouldn't have listened when he asked you follow him into the situation.
I disagree with you about the calling of the disciples though. I think when Jesus said to them "follow me" they probably recognized that he was indeed a rabbi and they understood the cultural significance of what it meant to be invited by a rabbi to follow him. I don't think fishermen in the midst of working would drop their livlihood to just go and hang out. I think there must have been something profound that drew them to Jesus in those initial encounters where they were called.
I also place more importance on walking with Jesus in relationship first, before basing our lives on his teachings. The christians that I know whom I look up to are those that live according to Jesus' teachings because they know him and love him. Christians that annoy me are those who simply follow the teachings as religion and rules to live by, without giving much thought to their actual relationship with God.
Have a great day Brad.
cheers,
ehj
Posted by: Eric H Janzen | September 29, 2007 at 12:21 AM
A couple of years ago I was wrestling (again) with what Jesus' meant by "Follow me." The traditional view has been something like,
1. Give your life to me.
2. Base my life on my teachings and live by them. IE, this article.
Granted. The traditional "rabbi/apprentice" arrangement.
But on another level, I also think we've over spirtualized this. To his discples, what did "Follow me!" mean? Like, the moment they heard it?
I think it meant something more along the lines of, "Hey, I'm going to the market. Want to come along?" As in, "Come, spend time with me." And so they follow. And they keep following. It means, "Where I am, there my servant will also be," to quote Jesus. Think literally for a minute. Drop the figurative, you can pick it back up later.
To follow Jesus means to go where he goes. To follow his lead. It's not just about the heart, it's about "location." Discipleship is still a concrete thing, as Dallas Willard reminds us in the Divine Conspiracy. And not just in a moral sense, in a directive sense.
A couple of years ago, a friend's marriage was in trouble. Jesus, in effect, said to me, "I'm going in. Follow me." So I did, refusing to mind my own business, and their marriage is better for it.
Of course, to follow Jesus does ALSO mean to give our lives to him and base our lives on his teachings. And the stuff you've highlighted above is a good peek at that. Especially the bit about our minds - "If our ways of thinking and the activities of our mind prevent or hinder us from loving God then we are not following the command he has given us." NICE thought. I'll chew on that awhile.
Those are my two cents.
Posted by: Brad Huebert | September 28, 2007 at 07:43 AM