The Essential Commandment E-Book

Greg Ogden

• Herausgeber: IVP Bible Studies
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: The Essentials Set
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 350

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Is it really possible to live out the Great Commandment?When an expert in the law asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is, Jesus gave a clear and simple answer:"'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."But what does the Great Commandment look like on the ground, in our day-to-day lives? And can we even come close to living it out?Jesus, Greg Ogden believes, has a simple answer to that too. He writes, "Jesus didn't follow [the Great Commandment] up by saying, 'I know I'm asking a lot, but do the best you can. I know you'll never fully approximate this high and lofty goal, but it's still worth striving for.' . . . Jesus thinks this is possible." And with Jesus, Ogden has found, it is possible--and essential.In this practical, in-depth handbook, Ogden draws from his years of pastoral experience training and discipling others to help us truly be changed by Christ into people who love God and love others with all that we are. Following the format of his bestselling Discipleship Essentials, each chapter includes: - a core truth - a memory verse - an inductive Bible study - a reading on one aspect of the Great Commandment Thoughtful questions will also help you examine your heart and life and move you to open yourself to God's transforming work.Above all, Ogden helps you see that the Great Commandment is actually a great invitation to join God in bringing his kingdom to earth. And as you learn to do so, you'll find that the greatest commandment leads to the greatest life possible.

Leseprobe

The Essential Commandment

A Disciple's Guide to Loving God and Others

Greg Ogden

www.IVPress.com/Connect

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected]

© 2011 by Greg Ogden

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Design: Cindy Kiple Images: ©Royce DeGrie/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-6943-5 (digital)

Contents

Getting the Most from The Essential Commandment

Introduction

1: The Essential Commandment Explained

Part One

2: A Broken and Contrite Heart

3: A Listening Heart

Part Two

4: A Soul That Thirsts for God

5: A Soul . . . Fully Alive . . .

Part Three

6: Having the Mind of Christ

7: The Transformation of the Mind

Part Four

8: Focusing Our Energy

9: Growing Healthy Bodies

Part Five

10: Have Mercy for Those in Need

11: Love Those Who Would Do You Harm

12: Demonstrate Compassion: Love’s Evidence

Appendix A

Appendix B

Notes

For Further Training

Also available

About the Author

Other Books in This Series

Getting the Most from The Essential Commandment

What would happen to the church of Jesus Christ if a majority of those who claim to follow Christ were nurtured to maturity through intimate, accountable relationships centered on the essentials of God’s Word? Self-initiating, reproducing disciples of Jesus would be the result.

The Essential Commandment is specifically designed to implement small, reproducible discipleship units. The vision that stands behind this tool is an ever-expanding, multi­generational discipling network. This tool brings together three conditions which create the climate for the Holy Spirit to bring about accelerated growth.

The first condition for transformation is the unchanging truth of God’s Word. We have moved into a post-Christian era in the Western world. Previously, when Christendom reigned, it was generally assumed that there was such a thing as a “revealed” truth or at least scientific, objective truth that was true for all. But now in these post-Christian times relativism prevails, especially in the realm of morals and lifestyles. “Live and let live” is the byword that reflects today’s highest value—tolerance. It is assumed that all lifestyles and moral convictions are equal, because all truth is personal. In the midst of this morass of relativism, each of these twelve chapters is built around a “core truth” that is true for all, because the source of this truth is a God who is the same for all.

For the truth of God’s Word to be released in its transforming power, though, it must be pursued in the context of trusting, intimate and lasting relationships.

The second condition for spiritual transformation in the Holy Spirit’s laboratory is transparent relationships. The individual has replaced the family or community as the basic unit of our society. Serial and discarded relationships mark our era. The prevailing philosophy is personal fulfillment based upon what feels good or right for me now. Many have not even witnessed the health of long-term, loving commitment. At the core of every human being is the desire for deep and satisfying relationships because we are created in the image of God. God made us for relationship with himself and with one another. A small discipleship group is a place to learn how to be intimate and self-revealing in a safe place over time. What we will ultimately have when all is said and done is the people we love.

Transformation occurs when we grapple with the truth of God’s Word in the context of transparent relationships. It is a biblical axiom that the Holy Spirit will have free sway in our lives to the extent to which we open ourselves up to one another. Honesty with God is not sufficient. We give God permission to reshape our lives when we risk self-revelation and confession to others. We can’t grow in Christ by ourselves. We are people made for community.

Thethird condition for transformation is mutual accountability. Accountability is taking the relational context of discipleship to another level. Accountability means giving your discipling partners authority to call you to keep the commitments you have made to one another. You will convene your discipling relationship around a mutual covenant (see p. 12). A covenant is a shared agreement whereby you clearly state your mutual expectations. In so doing you are giving each other permission to hold you to your agreement.

In summary, when the truth of God’s Word is at the heart of self-revealing, intimate relationships rooted in mutual accountability, you have the necessary elements for Spirit-motivated transformation. This tool provides the structure for these three elements to come together. Add to this discipling unit a vision for equipping followers of Jesus to pass on the faith from one generation to the next, and you have the components to renew a ministry from the bottom up.

Contexts for Discipling

Discipling in the minds of many has become associated with a one-on-one, teacher-student relationship. When I wrote Discipleship Essentials, I experimented with the material in a number of contexts. Up to that point my discipling paradigm had also been one-on-one. In addition to this traditional approach I led a threesome called a triad and a discipleship group of ten. I was startled by the difference in dynamics. I have come to see groups of three or four as the optimum setting for making disciples.

Why do I believe that a triad or quad is superior to one-on-one? (1) The one-on-one sets up a teacher-student dynamic. The pressure is on the discipler to be the answer person or the fountain of all wisdom and insight. When a third person is added, the dynamic shifts to a group process. The discipler can more naturally make his or her contribution in the dynamic of group interchange. (2) Triad discipling shifts the model from hierarchical to relational. The greatest factor inhibiting those who are being discipled to disciple others (multiplication) is the dependency fostered by one-on-one relationships. The triad/quad, on the other hand, views discipleship as a come-alongside relationship of mutual journey toward maturity in Christ. The hierarchical dimension is minimized. (3) The most startling difference between one-on-one and threes or fours is the sense of “groupness.” The sense of the Holy Spirit’s being present in our midst occurred much more often in the group versus the one-on-one. (4) There is wisdom in numbers. The group approach multiplies the perspectives on Scripture and application to life issues, whereas one-on-one limits the models and experience. By adding at least a third person there is another perspective brought to the learning process. The group members serve as teachers of one another. (5) Finally, and not to be minimized, by adding a third or fourth person who is being equipped to disciple others, the multiplication process is geometrically increased.

You might ask, if three is better than two, why isn’t ten better than three? The larger the group, the more you water down the essential elements that make for transformation. (1) Truth—Learning occurs in direct proportion to the ability to interact with the truth, which becomes more difficult with an increased number of voices contributing. It also becomes increasingly difficult to tailor the rate of learning to the individual, the larger the size of the group. (2) Transparent relationships—Self-disclosure is integral to transformation, and openness becomes increasingly difficult in direct proportion to the size of the group. If we are not free to divulge our struggles, then the Spirit will not be able to use the group members to effectively minister at the point of need. (3) Mutual accountability—The larger the group, the easier it is to hide. Accountability requires the ability to check to see if assignments were completed, or commitments to obedience were maintained. Greater numbers decrease access to a person’s life.

Role of the Discipler

The Essential Commandment can be used in a number of contexts (personal study, one-on-one, one-with-two or a discipleship group of ten), but whatever the context the key person is the discipler. Tools don’t make disciples. God works through disciples to model life in Christ for those who desire maturity. Simply covering the content violates the intent of this tool. The tool is a vehicle which helps create the context and provide content for disciplers who want to invest themselves in love and commitment to growing disciples. The tool raises the issues of discipleship, but the discipler embodies the principles in life patterns and convictions. Modeling will be where the real instruction occurs. Remember Jesus’ words, “Every one when he is fully taught will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40 RSV).

Studies in secular education reveal that modeling is still the most significant learning dynamic. Neither coercion nor rewards shape human behavior as much as a “motivated attempt to resemble a specific person.”[1] The lowest level of learning is compliance when one individual has control over another. The second level is identification. Influence is maintained because of a desire to remain in a satisfying relationship. Internalization is the third and highest step, for the desired behavior has become intrinsically rewarding. Modeling creates an atmosphere that affects values, attitudes and behavior.Some of the specific roles a discipler will carry out are as follows:

1. The first and key role of the discipler is to issue an “invitation to accountable relationship.” The commitment is described and the covenant is signed (see p. 12 for “A Disciple’s Covenant”). The discipler becomes the “keeper of the covenant.” The discipling process should not commence until the invited disciple has prayed over and signed the covenant of commitment. Without the covenant there are no mutually agreed-upon standards for accountability.

2. Initially, the discipler is the group convener and guide. The lessons are laid out in such a way that the discipler simply walks the partners through the discussion format. Approximately one-quarter to one-third of the way through the discipling process, the members rotate the task of guiding the weekly format, as a way to equip and prepare for leadership of the next generation.

3. The discipler prepares the assignments of The Essential Commandment just as the disciples do. Even though the discipling appointment will be guided by questions asked by the discipler, the guide shares his or her own responses to the discovery questions in the natural flow of conversation.

4. The discipler models transparency by sharing personal struggles, prayer concerns and confession of sin. The discipler does not need to have all the answers to biblical and theological questions. Feel free to say, “I don’t know, but I’ll try to find the answer” or “Let’s research this together.” The power of modeling is not dependent upon a false perfectionism. The discipler will gain as much insight into Scripture and the Christian life as those who are being discipled for the first time.

Suggested Study Format

Though The Essential Commandment is twelve sessions, I would not expect that you could cover the book in twelve weeks. The relationship is always primary. Just plowing through the lessons would violate the spirit of this type of group. Every group will vary in length according to your style of learning, the depth of personal matters you are sharing at any given time and the detours you take to pursue issues raised by the study. Remember that the idea behind a small, tailored discipleship group is to proceed at the pace that is comfortable for the participants. Don’t feel obligated to cover every question, but use this book as a menu from which to select, especially if some of the material is familiar and already incorporated in your life.

The assignments are to be completed individually in their entirety prior to the discipling appointment. Each lesson contains discussion guides specifically designed for each of the following elements:

Core Truth—The core truth serves as the nugget around which each lesson is built. The rest of the chapter is designed to further clarify the central focus. Begin each lesson with a review of the core truth’s question and answer.

Memory Verse—When we commit the Bible to memory, God’s viewpoint on life slowly becomes ours. The psalmist writes, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11). This discipline helps us grow to be more like Christ as we are grounded in his truth, encourage other believers with God’s Word and share our faith with others. These verses should be reviewed approximately every fourth session.

Inductive Bible Study—The place to discover reality from the only perspective that counts is the Bible. We are not interested in stowing away truth as if we were simply trying to acquire more knowledge. The object of this Bible study is to encounter reality and then through God’s power bring our lives in line with it.

Reading—Each lesson concludes with a teaching printed in the guide. This reading is intended to provide a contemporary discussion of the eternal core truth that will challenge our lifestyle and stimulate our thinking. The follow-up questions will help make the learning concrete.

Weave prayer through all that you do. Begin by acknowledging Christ’s presence through the Holy Spirit, and open your lives to what he may desire to do in you. As you deepen your life together through personal sharing, prayer is a response to the burdens you unload or the blessings God gives. Finally, intercede for one another that you can make the changes in thought, word and deed that the Lord has brought to your attention.

A Disciple’s Covenant

In order to grow toward maturity in Christ and complete The Essential Commandment, I commit myself to the following standards:

Complete all assignments on a weekly basis prior to my discipleship appointment in order to contribute fully (see “Suggested Study Format”).

Meet weekly with my discipleship partners for approximately one-and-a-half hours to dialogue over the content of the assignments.

Offer myself fully to the Lord with the anticipation that I am entering a time of accelerated transformation during this discipleship period.

Contribute to a climate of honesty, trust and personal vulnerability in a spirit of mutual upbuilding.

Give serious consideration to continuing the discipling chain by committing myself to invest in at least two other people for the year following the initial completion of

The Essential Commandment.

Signed:

Dated:

(The above commitments are the minimum standards of accountability. Feel free to add any other elements to your covenant.)

Introduction

Jesus Believes It Is Possible!

Would Jesus ask something of us that couldn’t be done?

At the center of all the biblical commands and at the very core of “everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20), Jesus declares that we are to love God with everything we’ve got and love our neighbors in the same way that we cherish ourselves.

Really? Is this possible?

The energy behind the writing of this curriculum comes from an insight that is quite frankly embarrassing. It is embarrassing because I should know better. At first, the insight doesn’t seem very dramatic. In fact, every time I have shared this personal “revelation” with others I have been sheepishly apologetic. But here is the amazing truth: Jesus actually thinks we can become like him. Jesus actually believes that it is possible for frail and deeply flawed human beings to focus our complete affection on God and others.

The key word here for me is possible. I had unconsciously given up the possibility of actually doing what Jesus commanded. No, I had never consciously thought or said, “Jesus, I think you’re an idealistic dreamer,” or “Jesus, you can only expect so much from flawed humanity.” I was not even aware that I had dismissed Jesus’ belief in me. But what had taken over my spirit in my attempt to be authentic was a focus on where I had fallen short of Jesus’ call. In my desire to make sure that I was not deceiving myself about my capacity for sin, I had given up the upside possibility that the character of Jesus could actually take over my life.

The Impossible Possibility

Because of this insight, I have come to realize that we need to hold two truths in dynamic tension. On the one hand, we need to be rigorously honest about our shortcomings. Part of what it means to live in the light of Christ is allowing him to shine that light in the hidden regions of our soul. Yet at the same time we need to hold to the compelling vision that this same light illumines our path so that we can live into our potential of being God- and people-lovers. There is a Hasidic saying that advises us to go around with a piece of paper in each pocket, with one piece reading “I am dust and ashes,” and the other, “For me the world was created.” Yes, we are finite and broken people as well as those who have been redeemed to reflect the Redeemer. Jesus would not ask us to be and do something unless it was possible. We can become the bodily dwelling place of Jesus who lives his life out through us.

The vision that Jesus has placed before us comes in the form of his summary statement as to what our life agenda is to be. In response to one of the “teachers of the law” seeking to know which commandment was most important, Jesus responded with what we have come to call the Great Commandment: “ ‘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” (Mark 12:30-31). He didn’t follow this up by saying, “I know I’m asking a lot, but do the best you can. I know you’ll never fully approximate this high and lofty goal, but it’s still worth striving for.” No, I added that part myself. In my spirit I washed out the possibility that this could actually be, saying, “I know the guy dwelling in this body all too well. Not a chance that this weak and feeble individual could ever approximate Jesus’ expectation.”

Yet something uplifting started to happen when my spirit began to rehearse a different message: “Jesus thinks this is possible.” I found a new energy released in me. A buoyancy of spirit beckoned me with the thought that I could live more deeply into the possibility of loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and loving my neighbor as myself. With Jesus, it is possible to “love your enemies, [and] do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). It’s not just for that rare person who seems to have tapped into a pool of grace that the rest of us have not been able to find.

The Paradox

Herein lies the paradox of being a Christ-follower. We need to embrace what appear to be two competing truths about ourselves—our deeply corrupted spirits and our redemption through Christ—if we are to approximate what Jesus believes is our potential as Great Commandment people.

On the one hand, if we are not deeply in touch with our dark side, we will miss the incredible grace that claimed us while we were in full rebellion against God and into our own self-exaltation. Like the alcoholic in a twelve-step program who started down the road to redemption by saying, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol,” the believer has to acknowledge without qualification, “We admit we are powerless over sin.” Left to myself, I don’t love God or my neighbor; in fact, I hate God, who crowds my autonomy, and I don’t really care what happens to my neighbor, as long I am taken care of. Only when we see the extent of how corrupt our spirit is through and through will we rejoice with Paul’s words, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

Without an awareness of our need for grace, we will simply turn the Great Commandment into a new law that we attempt to fulfill by our own effort. It’s true that this summary commandment of Jesus serves the dual purpose of the law. On the one hand, the apostle Paul tells us that the law was given to show us how far short we fall before the holiness of God (Romans 7:13). It serves its purpose by driving us to our knees. Just try keeping the command to love God and our neighbors in our own strength. We would not survive our own thought life for the next ten minutes. So in our study of the Great Commandment, we want to avoid making Jesus’ commandment simply a higher-level law that leads only to enslavement rather than freedom.

On the other hand, we don’t want to miss what is implicit in this command. Jesus thinks that living this truth is possible. We walk carefully between the shoals of being in touch with our capacity for self-deception yet at the same time energized by the new capacity that God’s grace gives us to become the redeemed people in whom Christ dwells. Dallas Willard says it succinctly: “Grace is opposed to earning, not to effort.”[1] The apostle Paul helps us with this tension. On the one hand he said of himself, “I am . . . the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15-16); on the other hand he said that this awareness infused him with an energy and passion fueled by God’s grace that sent him across the known world. Here is how Paul brings these two truths together: “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

What is the relationship then between grace and law? Is the law nullified by grace? Do we not have to concern ourselves with the commandments this side of grace? To echo Paul, “Absolutely not!” (see Galatians 3:21). Dallas Willard states the connection between grace and law: “The presence of the Spirit and of grace is not meant to set the law aside, but to enable conformity to it from an inwardly transformed personality. . . . Law comes with grace in the renewed soul. There is no such thing as grace without law. The law is the structure of the life of grace in the kingdom of God.”[2]

Jesus’ command to love God with all we’ve got and to treat our neighbor with the same regard as we do ourselves is meant to bring us to the end of ourselves. When we hear this expectation we’re supposed to say, “There is no way in the world that in myself I will ever be able to live up to this standard.” This realization should cause us to cast ourselves unreservedly on the grace of God and repent of our sin-sick soul. Then we are flooded with the light of God’s accepting grace. Our heart of stone is massaged back to life as a heart of flesh that begins to beat within. We find within a new motivation and desire to want to become all that God hopes us to be. Because our inner affections are being transformed to love what God loves, we begin to understand that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The law we hated now becomes the life we have always wanted.

Transformation of the Will

Dallas Willard was again the one who led me to this breakthrough. In his very helpful article “Spiritual Formation: What It Is, and How It Is Done,”[3] he writes that to be fully formed in Christ is to come to that place where our natural impulses come to reflect the feelings, thinking and actions of Jesus himself. Since the will is the primary locus of this formation—the executive center of our being—Willard speaks of three dimensions or conditions of the will (he equates the will and the heart as we’ll see more fully later). He calls the first dimension of the will the impulsive will: it’s “directed or moved by or toward things that are simply attractive.” This is where a baby begins. Babies are simply drawn to what is enticing in their environment. Adults who don’t outgrow this impulse to simply do what is pleasing to them are driven by immediacy and enslaved by their own desires.

This appears to be the cultural norm. Robert Bellah and a team of fellow sociologists went in search of the distinguishing characteristics of Americans and then published the results in their classic work Habits of the Heart. They found one quality that sets Americans apart from those of other cultures: freedom. But unfortunately it’s a rather skewed understanding of freedom; it’s the freedom from obligation. This view can be summarized in the following statement: “I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it, and no one better tell me otherwise.” Bellah makes the point that this view of freedom as radical independence does not provide the basis for any long-term covenantal relationships such as marriage or even a relationship with God.

Thankfully, Willard identifies a second dimension of the will. As a follower of Christ, he says, a person must adopt the practice of a reflective will, which involves beginning to set up a dialogical process where the good that God intends is examined over against our thinking, feeling and acting. In other words, with this type of will we regularly reflect on our life in light of God’s revealed truth. For example, almost every day I begin my time of prayer with the ancient spiritual practice of the examen. My simplified version of this prayer is to ask the Lord through his Spirit to take me back through the previous day in order to review what he would have me pay attention to. I call this “praying backwards.” My reflective questions are, “Lord, in what way were you present in the interactions and events of the day?” More specifically, “How were you at work? What did I miss? For what can I give thanks?” And then very specifically, “As a result of your life in me, how can I be formed to respond and act more like you?” I both celebrate God’s presence and my being in concert with his purposes while also carefully making note of the missed opportunities, misspoken words and other missteps.

While reflection is good, we’re not to stop there. The reflective will moves us toward a deeper goal: what Willard calls the embodied will. It was while I was reading his insight into this dimension of the will that my “aha” came. Willard, echoing Jesus, says it is possible to become so aligned with Jesus’ heart that our automatic responses are simply in tune with God’s heart. This is how I apply this to myself: Suppose someone were to come to me and say something like, “I don’t get why you want to be a teacher and pastor. You show no evidence of having that gift. What were you thinking when you went into this profession?” Is it possible that the presence of Jesus could so engulf my inner and bodily reactions that my first response would be to want to do good to this person who was insulting me, and to want only the best for their life?

To be formed in Christ is to say, “Yes, it is possible. Yes, this is what I would want my inner world to become. I want to be so in tune with Jesus’ life in me that his embodied will becomes mine.”

Categories of Convictions

In other words, Jesus intends to get down to the very core of our makeup. Michael Novak provides another scheme that parallels Willard’s framework of the will. He divides conviction into three categories: public, private and core. John Ortberg picks up on these in his book Faith and Doubt.[4]

Public beliefs. Public beliefs are those convictions that we want other people to think we believe, even though we may not really believe them. For example, if my wife puts on a dress and asks, “Does this dress make me look like I have wide hips?” the correct answer is, “I didn’t even know you had hips.”[5] We might express public beliefs in our business life too; for example, there may be politically correct words and phrases that we feel we need to say we believe if we want to be a good company person, but inside we know we don’t believe them. Public figures are notorious for uttering public beliefs because they sound good.

The biblical illustration here is King Herod. After Jesus was born, some visitors from the East (whom we call “wise men”) told him about the one who was born King of the Jews. Herod told the wise men, “Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him” (Matthew 2:8). Did King Herod have any intent to worship this child? No, of course not. But it made for good public consumption because it would get him what he wanted.

Private beliefs. Private beliefs are those things we actually think we believe until they are tested. For example, on the night before Jesus was crucified, the apostle Peter stated his undying allegiance to Jesus. When Jesus then told Peter that he would deny him before the cock crowed three times, Peter said, “Even if all fall away, I will not. . . . Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you” (Mark 14: 29, 31).

When Peter said these words, was he sincere in that moment? Did he actually think he believed what he was saying? Yes, I think he did believe. Were these Peter’s true convictions? No. When the time came to stand up as a loyal follower of Jesus, he acted like he never knew Jesus.

We never truly know if we believe our convictions until they’re tested. We can assert in life or in death that our sure and certain hope is in Jesus Christ, and that nothing can move us off of that foundation. Then we might hear those frightening words, as I did, “You’ve got cancer!” Only then could I truly look inside myself to see if my sure and certain hope was in Jesus Christ in this life and beyond.

Core beliefs. Our core beliefs are the convictions that are revealed in our daily actions, based on what we actually do. These are the mental maps we follow. We will always act out of our core beliefs or convictions, and will never violate them. For example, we believe in gravity. We are not able to violate that belief, so we’ll always act with that knowledge in mind. Gravity is part of our mental map. If we want to stay safe, we won’t walk to the edge of a hundred-story building; if we want to take our life, we might do so. Our actions are always the result of our core purposes or convictions.

My public convictions, then, are what I want you to think I believe, my private convictions are what I think I believe, but my core convictions are revealed by what I actually do. Where does Jesus target the transformation of our convictions? He intends to change us at our core beliefs, to establish his embedded will in us. His desire is to be so central and present to us and in us that our automatic responses as well as our intended desire are simply to have our hearts beat next to his.

I am suggesting that this means we live in what might appear at first to be a contradiction, but actually, it’s a liberating paradox. On the one hand we must come face to face with our flawed nature and have a sense of how much we must live in grace at all times. There is never a time when we outgrow the need for God’s undeserved embrace. As Paul says to his son in the faith, Timothy, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:1). Whether it’s a case of something I’ve done or something I’ve failed to do, I need the covering of God’s mercy at all times.

Yet . . . God has chosen to put his truth in this clay pot (earthen vessel), which is “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18). God thinks enough of us to abide in us and then set off on his work of renovation. And Jesus commands us to love God and the ones for whom he laid down his life because he believes that we can actually do it.

The irony is that living into God’s possibility is only possible when we confess the impossibility. May the following prayer express the desires of our heart as we begin this journey:

Dear Father, we hear your call to love you with everything that we are and to love those whom you infinitely value. Are you asking us to do something that is not really possible? Part of us confesses that we are only weak creatures whose passion for you can only be described as tepid. We hear that you want us to engage our hearts, souls, minds and bodies in full devotion to you, but when we look at our lives we feel that we pale in comparison to your expectation. If we are going to be what you want us to be, we will need an infusion of love that is not our own. And yet, we so want to live into your belief in us. As we embark on this journey together, create a sense of anticipation in us that you will stretch our capacity beyond what we ever thought was imaginable so that we can live into your possibility for us. Through Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.

1 The Essential Commandment Explained

Looking Ahead

MEMORY VERSE: Romans 12:1BIBLE STUDY: 1 John 4:7-21READING: The Essential Commandment

 Core Truth

What should be the focus of our life each day and all of our days?

In response to God’s invitation to enter a relationship of covenant love, we are called to return that love to God by placing our full affection on him. So worthy is God of our complete devotion that we are to submit our will (heart), harness our passions (soul), discipline our thinking (mind) and channel our energy (strength) to his glory. As we do so, other people—all cherished by God—will become our priority.

Identify key words or phrases in the question and answer above, and state their meaning in your own words.

Restate the core truth in your own words.

What questions or issues does the core truth raise for you?

 Memory Verse Study Guide

In the apostle Paul’s masterwork, the book of Romans, he spends the first eleven chapters expounding on the mercy of God across the great sweep of time and eternity. So taken is Paul by this breathtaking picture that he himself has painted that he concludes this section by spontaneously breaking out in doxology, “Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Romans 11:33). Once this foundation of mercy is laid, Paul then shifts to the implications for how we are to live.

Putting it in context:

Read Romans 11:33–12:2. How does verse 12:1 serve as a transition from Paul’s foundational description of mercy to the implications for Christian living?

The memory verse is

Romans 12:1

. Copy the verse verbatim.

The Message

by Eugene Peterson is a paraphrase of Scripture that puts it into everyday language. Romans 12:1 in his translation reads, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” What strikes you about Peterson’s rendition of our memory verse?

According to Paul, what is the only appropriate response to God’s mercy?

What do you think it means to be a “living sacrifice”?

How does Paul broaden the concept of worship beyond our usual association with a worship service?

What parallels do you see between the memory verse and the Essential Commandment (see Mark 12:29-31)?

[Throughout this text the Great Commandment will be referred to as the Essential Commandment in concert with the title of this work.]

 Inductive Bible Study Guide

The apostle John, in a sense, wrote his own commentary on the Essential Commandment in his first epistle. In it, he tells us that love is at the core of who God is and that this same kind of love is therefore to be reflected through our life.

Read 1 John 4:7-21

. How would you summarize John’s line of thought after reading this part of his letter?

What is the qualitative nature of the love John describes in verses 7-12?

How does this shed light on John’s claim that “everyone who loves has been born of God”?

From what source do we draw this love?

What is the connection between love, judgment, fear and punishment according to verses 17-18?

Why is it impossible to love God and hate your brother or sister?

If you were to do an inventory of your relationships within the body of Christ, where might you find yourself coming up short of John’s pointed exhortation in verses 19-21?

 Reading: The Essential Commandment

During a visit to Brazil, the late Senator Robert Kennedy was taken to the interior to observe some of the tribal life. Through an interpreter, he was introduced to a native Brazilian who had recently been converted to Christ. Kennedy told the interpreter to ask him what he enjoys doing the most. The native Brazilian’s surprising reply was, “Being occupied with God.” The senator, expecting the man to say something like fishing or hunting, was convinced that something had been lost in the translation. So he repeated the question, only to hear the same reply: “Being occupied with God.”[1]

What an interesting way to speak about our basic pursuit or purpose! I wonder: Would this, in all honesty, even be close to the way we might answer Kennedy’s question?

The Basics of Life

Jesus reduces life to its raw basics in the Essential Commandment. Hear Dale Bruner’s summary: “The purpose of living is the adoration of God and the cherishing of human beings.”[2] Unfortunately, we make life far more complicated than this—at least until tragedy strikes. I have vivid memories of walking out of a hospital into the cool of a Southern California evening having just left a waiting room where an extended family had set up camp. They were keeping a prayer vigil, hoping against hope that their nineteen-year-old son/brother/nephew would miraculously recover from a motorcycle accident. In that moment, all they had was hope in God and the love of family and friends. Frankly, nothing else mattered. Job promotions were the farthest thing from their mind. Planning their next vacation hardly mattered. They couldn’t have cared less whether they had a new addition on their home or the latest model car. Life had been reduced to the God they loved and the significant people in their life. This family’s state of mind may not have been centered on the Essential Commandment, but they certainly reflected its essence.

In the Essential Commandment Jesus not only declares that God’s purpose is knowable; he also makes it crystal clear. Jesus simplifies for us the rationale for life. In what we have come to know as the Great Commission, Jesus tells his would-be followers that being his disciple means engaging in a lifetime of obeying “everything that I [Jesus] have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). If we were to enumerate all of Jesus’ commands, they could amount to as many as 147 according to one person’s calculations.[3] But Jesus has done us a favor in identifying the “greatest” or the “most important” commandment. In the Essential Commandment he takes us to the core of the core.

Life is short, so we have to major on the majors. In the weeks ahead you will get to focus your attention on what Jesus tells us truly counts. We have it on the best authority that the dash between the date of our birth and death should be focused on living the Essential Commandment.