The Biggest Promise
We are able to obey the greatest command by believing the greatest promise.
To a man who wanted to “justify himself” (Luke 10:29) by concluding he had loved people the way God expects, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan, not a cute story teaching us how to love but as a smashing condemnation on this man and us for our boastful pride that insists we are loving enough.
“No, you are not,” Jesus insists in return. “You love people who are easy to love, but anyone can do that. I want you to love people who are difficult to love, and you haven’t. You haven’t loved the person who was unethically promoted instead of you. You haven’t loved your husband when his snoring keeps you awake. You haven’t loved your aging grandparents longing for a visit from you to interrupt their loneliness. You haven’t lovingly crossed social lines or cultural divides. You haven’t shared ten minutes in the lobby talking to your weird neighbor who lives across the hall.”
Such a great command to love is a difficult burden to carry, so much that we grow weary of its expectations. We get sick and tired of always having to do the right thing. We become too stressed to love under such serious and sensitive demands.
That must have been the case for Wesley Fitzpatrick, who went before a judge in Kansas City and asked for a temporary restraining order against a woman that he said was making him “scared, depressed and in fear for my freedom” (Wichita Eagle, March 14, 2003). The restraining order was not granted, however, because the judge discovered that Fitzpatrick’s stalker was none other than his parole officer. Sometimes we’ve just had enough of religion, enough of God’s expectations, enough sermons and Bible passages and rules for Christian living and we just want it all restrained.
But God unveils every benefit and blessing that he has ready for those who do his will. If you volunteer for Meals on Wheels, how will you find the time to take care of all your other errands? God will make it work. If you spend time helping out the new person on the job who has been labeled as strange by all your friends at work, how will the work relationships you value be effected? God will make it work. If you give up double digital cable and eat out half as much so that you can give more generously to God’s work at church, how will you have as much fun and feel fulfilled in everyday living? God will make it work out. He promises. But there’s an even better promise than that! It’s the greatest promise!
The greatest promise goes hand-in-hand with the greatest command. The greatest command calls for everything from us, the greatest promise gives everything to us. The greatest command tells us what to do, the greatest promise tells us what has been done. We are able to obey the greatest command by believing the greatest promise. Just as the greatest command is love, so the greatest promise is love.
“Remember, O Lord, your great mercy and love,” we sing with the Israelites in Psalm 25:6. What makes God’s love so great? What is the greatest promise? “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God expresses his love to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, communicated to us as the Word in the word of Scripture. “The word is very near you,” Moses reminds us, “it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it” (Deuteronomy 30:14).
Keeping God’s greatest command is attainable by you and accessible to you because God’s greatest promise is available to you and active in you. What God commands, God gives! What God expects, God provides.
PRAYER: I have so much to do, God. But what is the most important? Can you give me the wisdom to decide? Can you help me choose what you would choose? Can you strengthen me to do what is right instead of what is easy? Guide me with your commands. Empower me with your promises. And let my decisions and actions of faith bring glory to you. Amen.