Doing and Finding the One Thing Matthew 22:35-----

 Doing and Finding the One thing - Matthew 22:35---

    While meditating on the text this week from Matthew about the greatest commandment in the law according to Our Lord, I read this in the morning reading about Naaman who wanted to be cleansed from his leprosy.  ( II Kings 5:9-19).  He comes to Elisha's door and he is told to wash in the Jordan seven times. With that, he gets angry.He thought Elisha would come out and do something dramatic, " But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."  His servants tried to reason with him, " if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? "  Seeing they were right, "Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel"

   Today as we think about what Jesus said to the lawyer, tempting him, Matthew 22:35 perhaps Jesus' answer straight out of the Book of Deuteronomy was too simple.  At least many in our culture think it should be more complicated just like Naaman the Syrian... But listen to Jesus .  He answers directly and we need to know this too. 22:37 " Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the LORD Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment."

The  way to do this is to see who said it, and look to Him.  He enables us to believe and do what He asks us to do. Three parts below of loving the LORD.

1.  Start with love . God is love John tells us too in His letter. 

a.  We are to love with all our hearts. Kardia is the orig word. It means, "  the heart; mind, character, inner self, will, intention, center."desire-producer that makes us tick" (G. Archer), i.e our "desire-decisions" that establish who we really are.

[Heart (2588 /kardía) is mentioned over 800 times in Scripture, but never referring to the literal physical pump that drives the blood. That is, "heart" is only used figuratively (both in the OT and NT.]"  biblehub.com  This reminds me of Mt 6:33, " Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things (what you shall eat, drink...clothes) shall be added unto you."

b.  and with all thy soul. It is your life.  ψυχή, ῆς, ἡ

Part of Speech: Noun, Feminine biblehub.com

Transliteration: psuché

Phonetic Spelling: (psoo-khay')

Definition: breath, the soul

Usage: (a) the vital breath, breath of life, (b) the human soul, (c) the soul as the seat of affections and will, (d) the self, (e) a human person, an individual.

HELPS Word-studies

5590 psyxḗ (from psyxō, "to breathe, blow" which is the root of the English words "psyche," "psychology") – soul (psyche); a person's distinct identity (unique personhood), i.e. individual personality.

5590 (psyxē) corresponds exactly to the OT 5315 /phágō ("soul"). The soul is the direct aftermath of God breathing (blowing) His gift of life into a person, making them an ensouled being.

This reminded me of Colossians 3 often used as an Easter reading.  "  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above...For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Also John 1---vs 4 " In Him was life; and the life was the light of men."

c.  And with all thy mind, love God.dianoia  biblehub.com

Phonetic Spelling: (dee-an'-oy-ah)

Definition: the mind, disposition, thought

Usage: understanding, intellect, mind, insight.

HELPS Word-studies

1271 diánoia (from 1223 /diá, "thoroughly, from side-to-side," which intensifies 3539 /noiéō, "to use the mind," from 3563 /noús, "mind") – properly, movement from one side (of an issue) to the other to reach balanced-conclusions; full-orbed reasoning (= critical thinking), i.e. dialectical thinking that literally reaches "across to the other side" (of a matter).

1271 /diánoia ("critical thinking"), literally "thorough reasoning," incorporates both sides of a matter to reach a meaningful (personal) conclusion. Such "full-breadth reasoning" is essential to loving (25 /agapáō) the Lord and our neighbor (Lv 19:8). It is also the instrument of self-destruction when exercised without God's light and power.

Jesus then directs the lawyer to the fulfillment of love...expressed in the one you can see. 

2.  Love your neighbor as yourself.    Love is the fulfilling of the law . Romans 13:10  This is the Second Table of the Law, the Ten Commandments.

The simplest ideas and things in life are the best.  I saw a little bird on my chair outside as I was writing this, and it made me feel so blessed to see it.  He was close and sat there as nothing would ever happen that was bad to him.

But sometimes things do happen in our lives and in our country that make us wonder how they could.  If we as God's people model Jesus' words to us here through Him, that is a good beginning.  Matthew 7: 12 reminds us "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: do even so them."