We often talk about our faith and understanding of the Bible as unchanging.

Our God never changes, which is correct God never changes.  And God’s Word never changes. 

But if we are true, healthy, seeking, developing and growing Christians our understanding of God and God’s Word does change. 

Hopefully, it will grow in the way of God.

Other times we are thrown off by the world and our understanding of God and God’s will is twisted to fit the world in which we live.  Some things in God’s word are timeless, others were written for that day and age and do not fit our day and age, at least not in our society. 

For example, we do not practice slavery, or take on concubines, or have five or ten wives. 

Thank God we were given a filter to look at God’s word. 

Every generation has its own scholars and charlatans who claim to have a better understanding and knowledge of God in the world. 

I am planning a trip for Sandra and I. We are driving to Glacier National Park.  I like to plan the route using a GPS but also I like the old fashioned atlas.  I find you get a better understanding of your surroundings with the atlas than you do just a computer-generated route. But in order to do that I need a magnifying glass to enlarge my view. 

We all were given a filter to see things more clearly as God meant them to be as well.  In order to enlarge our view and understanding, we need the filter of Jesus’s eyes.  We need to look at what Jesus lived for, to see what he gave up his life to share. 

In a world of so many commandments and laws, what are the two most important someone asked Him?  And those two commandments have not changed.  But many of us will have to change in order to fulfill them. 

This will be my last article. I am retiring, and Sandra and I are moving to Wimberley, Texas.  I want to leave with you these two commandments that will never change, even though our lives change and move and grow. I pray that we all may live into these two commandments.  Let them be your filter of who you love, who you listen to, who you vote for.  These are Jesus’s two most important commandments; may they be yours also. 

Mark 12:28-32.  28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

 

John Warren is Senior Pastor at First United Methodist Church, 502 North 6th Street in Orange.