ECadmin 15 May 2009 Articles, Featured, Jesus' Politics, RE:church 1,685 views 4 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

Written by James Pearson
Inspired by Matthew 23:23

You parse ancient scriptures with mathematical meticulousness; but you neglect to practice the Greatest Commandments, which Jesus said sum up the entire Law and Prophets: Love God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.

You should have committed yourselves wholly to the latter without neglecting the former.

You spend your love on babies that have not yet been born; but you neglect to love the people who already live and breathe all around you, in your cities, your offices, your neighborhoods.

You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

You organize and lobby and protest and vote to keep others from living a lifestyle that you think is wrong; but you neglect the more important matter of loving these people as friends, and as brothers and sisters before God.

You should have practiced the latter and let it shape the former.

You build your politics to protect your country and advance the interests of its citizens; but you neglect to remember Jesus’ teachings of a borderless kingdom, and to love those whose interests end up in opposition to yours, however far away they might be.

You should always practice the latter before aligning yourselves with the former.

You build expensive institutions to propagate spotless rhetorical doctrine; but you neglect to live as disciples of Jesus, the one for whom your religion is named.

You must focus yourselves on the latter; it’s the only reason the former exists.