Download BASIC INSIGHTS Do the Right Thing Session 1-

BASIC INSIGHTS
Do the Right Thing
Session 1—Get Connected
The following information is to help you get students thinking about the question: Where does my
obedience to God start? and to drive home this one truth: You start by loving God and loving others.
INTRODUCE THE TOPIC
My five-year-old son, Austin, likes to dig holes in our yard and bury “treasure” in them. We have a big yard
and as long as he stays in a certain area in the backyard, I don’t mind the digging. However, when my
wife, Amanda, is digging, weeding, and tending to her flower garden, Austin likes to help. But he isn’t
much help. So we don’t let Austin dig in the flower garden because there is a good chance that he will
end up killing the plants. Yet this is where he wants to dig.
One particular spring day, Amanda began working diligently in her garden as I tended to some other
matters in the yard. As expected, Austin came around the corner, shovel in hand and ready to help. We
both told him that he could not dig here, but was welcome to dig anywhere else in the backyard. His
reaction that day has stuck with me ever since. He exclaimed, “You won’t let me have any fun!” Austin
had an entire yard to dig in except for the flower garden. He had plenty of toys and a bicycle to ride, but
he could not have any fun?
When we think of obedience, we often have the same reaction: “I can’t have any fun!” In other words, we
view obedience negatively. We think that obedience is nothing more than controlling, confining, and
constraining to our sense of freedom. We have the illusion that freedom comes from doing whatever we
want. God has given us the entire world to play in, but we want to dig in the flower garden. True freedom
comes from obedience. There are many laws and commands in the Bible, so where should we start? Of
course, Austin’s obedience starts by obeying our command not to dig in his mother’s flower garden, but
where does obedience to God start?
POINTS TO FOCUS ON
1. Obedience starts by loving God.
28 One of the scribes approached. When he heard them debating and saw that Jesus answered them
well, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 “This is the most important,”
Jesus answered: Listen, Israel! The Lord our God, The Lord is One. 30 Love the Lord your God with all
your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:28-30)
The scribe’s question was not meant to “trick” Jesus, nor was it designed to entrap Him. He was not
asking which laws needed to be obeyed and which ones could be ignored. He was asking, “What is the
fundamental premise of the law on which all the individual commands depend?”
This particular scribe was well impressed with Jesus’ grasp of the law. His question was based on
distinguishing between the most important and the less important portions of the Law. James Brooks
writes in his commentary on Mark that the scribe’s question reflected the fact that the scribes had
identified 613 separate commandments, 365 of which were “do not” (negative) and 248 of which were
“do” (positive). They divided these commandments further into “heavy” and “light,” meaning more or less
important.
Jesus gave a straightforward answer by quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “The lord our God, The lord is One.
Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Jesus’ answer proclaimed that obedience starts with loving God with one’s whole being: heart, soul, mind,
and strength. Our love for God is a response to God’s love for us. You will find it impossible to love some
abstract ideology, cosmic force, or distant impersonal god. You can, however, give your whole heart,
soul, mind, and strength to the one true God who has first loved us in such a dramatic way as to send His
Son to give His life for us. God does not love just some portion of you, but your whole person. God does
not save us in parts and we are not to offer God just parts of ourselves.
Those who present God a few moments of worship in church once a week while ignoring the rest of life—
work, home, play—are not being obedient to the command to love God with their entire being. With God it
is all or nothing. Few can honestly sing “All to Jesus I Surrender,” but God requires nothing less than
loving Him with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength. Let’s
dig into those thoughts a bit farther:
All your heart—In the Bible, the heart is more than the blood pumping station. The heart is the command
center, where decisions are made and plans are devised. The heart controls our feelings, emotions,
desires, and passions. The heart is where obedience takes root. We can give good answers with our lips,
but it is in the heart where our true loyalties lie (see Mark 7:6). Those who love God with all of their heart
are those who do not wander aimlessly through life bouncing from everything and ending up with nothing.
Those who love God with all of their heart have set themselves on the course of following Jesus, which
keeps them from ever being lost.
All your soul—Augustine, one of western Christianity's most influential early Christian thinkers, described
the soul as “a special substance, endowed with reason, adapted to rule the body.” The soul, along with
the heart, determines conduct. In other words, when we are commanded to love God with all of our soul,
it refers to the power of our lives—our will. The Apostle Paul provides a good example of loving God with
all of his soul when he wrote, “Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I
do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead…” (Phil. 3:13). This “one thing” is
what drove Paul to press on (Phil. 3:14); to fight the good fight (2 Tim. 4:7); to consider his life of no value
except to finish the course of testifying to the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24); to endure beatings,
hardships, and danger (2 Cor. 11:16-33). Those who love God with all of their soul will, like Paul, commit
all of their energies to being consumed with God.
All your mind—God does not expect us to check our minds at the door. Thinking about faith is not
something to fear. Rather loving God with all of our mind is a requirement. The writings of the New
Testament testify that the early church thought about their faith and how to live it out. Researchers
George Gallup and Jim Castelli state the problem squarely: “Americans revere the Bible—but, by and
large, they don't read it. And because they don't read it, they have become a nation of biblical illiterates.”
We do little to advance the Kingdom of God if we can be dismissed easily as ignorant. Loving God with all
of our mind is more than having the right answers. Rather, loving God with all of our mind is finding in
God the riches of knowledge and insight and wisdom that guides one along the narrow path of following
Jesus.
All your strength—Loving God with all of our strength highlights action and intensity. We can say that we
love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, but, for the most part, those things are hidden away. When
we start talking about loving God with all of our strength, we’re really speaking about loving God with our
actions.
Taking these four together—heart, soul, mind, and strength—we should love God with a sincere,
intelligent, and energetic love. Obedience starts with love, but we are commanded to love God with
authenticity, with the utmost dedication, with the fullest exercise of our intellect, and with the whole energy
of our being.
2. Obedience continues by loving one another.
31 “The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
(Mark 12:31)
The scribe asked for one commandment, Jesus gave him two. By giving this commandment as well,
Jesus showed that loving God cannot be separated from loving others. If we love God with all of our
being, then we will love our neighbor as well. In other words, you cannot love God in isolation from all of
your other relationships in life. Relationships are based on mutual reliance. By loving your neighbor as
yourself, you are saying, “You can rely on me; our relationship will not mislead you or cause you harm. I
will help you and my word will correspond to my acts.”
Psychologists tell us that when a child is born he or she doesn't realize that there is any difference
between themselves and the external world. To a baby, I am the universe and the universe is me. There
is no separation or distinction. “Everything exists for my sake and my sake alone,” believes the child.
Jesus’ command is, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” We love ourselves. This is a given. Jesus does not
command it; He assumes it. He knows how self-centered we can all be. We want to be happy. We want
food for ourselves. We want clothes for ourselves. We want a place to live for ourselves. We want safety
for ourselves. We want some friends to like us and spend some time with us. We want our lives to count
in some way. All this is self-love. This self-love is what Jesus starts with when he says “as yourself.”
The word “as” is very radical: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” That’s a big word: “as.” It means: As we
long for food when we are hungry, so we should long to feed our neighbors when they are hungry. As we
long for nice clothes for ourselves, so we should long for nice clothes for our neighbors. As we seek a
comfortable place to live, so we should desire a comfortable place to live for our neighbors. As we seek to
be safe and secure, so we should seek comfort and security for our neighbors. As we seek friends for
ourselves, so we should be a friend to our neighbors. As we want our lives to count and be significant, so
we should desire that same significance for our neighbors. As we work to make good grades ourselves,
so we should work to help our neighbors be able to make good grades. As we like to feel welcome in a
new company of people, so we should seek to make others feel welcome.
Furthermore, Jesus left no room for deciding who is and who is not our neighbor. That would imply that
there is such a thing as a non-neighbor (see Luke 10:25-37). The fundamental principles that governed
Jesus’ ministry were unconditional love of God and neighbor. If we believe that it is possible to live a life
worthy of the gospel, then the natural outcome is a transformational shift in perspective (faith), purpose
(hope), and passion (love) evidenced in how we relate to enemies and friends, neighbors and strangers,
our families and the world. That is, loving our neighbors as ourselves demonstrates the love Jesus has for
us. Actions do speak louder than words, but doing good is only half of what God commanded. We are
bound to loving our neighbors as the fullest human expression of God’s love. This commandment,
however, is not sealed off from the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20). Rather, the commandment to
love God and neighbor provides the “what” of mission, while the Great Commission provides the “how.” In
other words, loving God and our neighbors as ourselves should result in the desire to “make disciples of
all nations.”
Jesus came to restore human beings to a relationship with God and each other. For this reason, God
expects your obedience to His commands and there is no greater commandment than to love God and
your neighbor. Jesus said the most important thing that you are to do in response to your redemption is
that you are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But to love God you must know
God. God is not honored by a groundless love. If you do not know anything about God, there is nothing to
awaken love in you. If love does not come from knowing God, there is no point in calling it love for God.
There may be some vague lure in your heart or some unfocused gratitude in your soul, but if they do not
arise from knowing God personally, this attraction is not love for God. Being a Christian is first and
foremost about your relationship with God through Jesus. However, the Christian life does not stop there.
Your obedience to God is reflected in your relationship with others. In this way, loving your neighbor is the
overflow of your love for God. Obedience begins with loving God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all of your mind, and with all of your strength. Your obedience continues by loving one another.