Love
I remember being about 10 years old when my parents called all of us kids in for a family meeting to go over the rules. There weren’t many, they had written them all down. I remember thinking how there were way more rules than they had there. There wasn’t a rule written down about eating with your mouth open or talking with food in your mouth and that was just the mealtime rules. Tidying my room was a rule and that wasn’t on the list either. The list just said things like respect each other.
With over 90 episodes now, we have a lot of episodes on love because God is love and it is so central to being a Christian. More than ever in these hard times, we need to be focusing on love and so for the next 10 weeks I am going to be bringing you episode after episode on love!
For an extra overview episode on love from last year, tune into this episode:
https://www.thewordonthestreetpodcast.com/podcast/be-different-be-loving
For all the episodes on love specifically, go here.
What do you think?
Imagine a world with no rules. What do you think it would be like?
No order, just everyone doing whatever they like.
At first everyone you see is happy because they are free to do whatever they like.
But soon everyone just seems scared.
You can see someone hurting someone else. That’s allowed.
You can see someone sneaking into a house and stealing their things. That’s allowed.
You can see that someone is dumping stuff into your drinking water tank. That’s allowed too.
How do you feel now? You see that people are starting to feel like they are in danger and are worried about the future. Their money is not safe. Their food is not safe. Even their homes aren’t safe.
Some of the earliest rules we know of in any civilisation were the rules God gave to Moses on the Mount of Sinai called the Ten Commandments. They were given to us as a gift! They are for our benefit so that we can feel safe in the community that we live in.
Our government creates rules called laws and if the government is good then the rules they make are for our benefit, but if it’s a corrupt government then the laws are not so good. But God’s rules are perfect because God is perfect.
In this intro episode we are going to be looking at Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40, when he was asked, “Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”
Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.”All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.”
We are being commanded to love. Loving God and loving others is a rule God has given us.
Story Time!
Have you ever had someone bite you? When my oldest son, Ted, was nearly 2, he became a biter, I became the helicopter, hovering overhead, just in case.
I felt a bit like God, wanting Ted to love others, asking and trying so hard, but he just kept ignoring me! I tried punishments, time out and things, but it didn’t work. I wanted him to be nice to others, I wanted him to think about what it would feel like to be the person he was biting.
Bible Passage: Matthew 22:36-40
“Teacher, what is the most important commandment in the Law?”
Jesus answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.This is the first and most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like this one. And it is, “Love others as much as you love yourself.”All the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets are based on these two commandments.”
What this means is that the 10 commandments in Exodus can actually be summarised by these 2 Jesus just said. The first 4 are about loving God and the next 6 are about loving others.
Bible Passage: Exodus 20:1-17
God said to the people of Israel:
I am the Lord your God, the one who brought you out of Egypt where you were slaves.
Do not worship any god except me.
Do not make idols that look like anything in the sky or on earth or in the ocean under the earth. Don’t bow down and worship idols. I am the Lord your God, and I demand all your love. If you reject me, I will punish your families for three or four generations. But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations.
Do not misuse my name. I am the Lord your God, and I will punish anyone who misuses my name.
Remember that the Sabbath Day belongs to me. You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week belongs to me, your God. No one is to work on that day—not you, your children, your slaves, your animals, or the foreigners who live in your towns. In six days I made the sky, the earth, the oceans, and everything in them, but on the seventh day I rested. That’s why I made the Sabbath a special day that belongs to me.
Respect your father and your mother, and you will live a long time in the land I am giving you.
Do not murder.
Be faithful in marriage.
Do not steal.
Do not tell lies about others.
Do not want anything that belongs to someone else. Don’t want anyone’s house, wife or husband, slaves, oxen, donkeys or anything else.
God was being so generous giving us these commandments. They are a blessing to us and are for our benefit. Can’t wait to bring you more episodes on love over the next few months!
Question Time!
What is the worst rule you have ever been told to do?
Why do you think God has given the commandment to his people to love?
Try and memorise today’s verse - learn a song if you have to, and get the verse in your head forever, as it is such an important one.
