"And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err. And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question."
In today's lesson, Jesus clarifies that the spirits of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have risen when He recalled that God had said to Moses, "I 'AM' the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, instead of I 'WAS' their God. That phrasing made it clear that the three were still with Him in the spirit.
Later in the lesson, Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest to which He answered, "The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
As Jesus said in Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." This means that unless we love God completely and unless we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, none of the other things we do matter.
Every "Christian" will profess that they indeed love God beyond all else, However, in my opinion, the greatest failing of today's "Christianity" is the blatant lack of concern for the weakest among us.
The poor and the weak in our society are generally castigated as outcasts, or leeches, who steal from our wealth. I believe to ignore the needs of those who cannot fend for themselves demonstrates a total lack of true Christian compassion is a slap to the face of the gospel of Jesus Christ.~
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