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HOUSMAIL HM071 14
March 2001 THE SHEMA -
"HEAR O ISRAEL"(Mark 12:29) (The Greatest
Commandment of ALL!) "Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and
with all your strength." (Mark 12:29 and Deuteronomy
6:4-5) Jesus
quoted this commandment from Deuteronomy 6:4-5. When he did so, it had already been, for 1500 years, the non-negotiable
starting point for recognition of the identity of the God of Israel. And no
Jew familiar with the Old Testament would ever have thought that ONE meant
MORE than the simple cardinal number - "ONE". Especially, there was
no recognition at all in the Jewish Faith into which Jesus was born, of later
human inventions such as "trinity" or "compound
unity", or "uni-plurality"!
Indeed, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, since these concepts
are NOT BIBLICAL, they must result from some fundamental failure to properly
obey the commandment to "HEAR"! If
Jesus says that this commandment is THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, it deserves
our full attention! We must study it prayerfully, until we get it right! It
is important enough to memorise it. It is important enough to KNOW without
prompting, where to find it in the Scriptures. And it is important enough to
teach it to our children ..... diligently ..... until it is fixed in their
hearts as firmly as it is in our own! (Deuteronomy 6:7) Note
carefully that this greatest Commandment of all, has THREE parts. PART
1 - THE FIRST PART OF THE COMMANDMENT SAYS "HEAR". HEAR
WHAT? Hear the commandment to "HEAR", of course! There
is a lot in that single word "hear". It implies in the strongest
possible way that we must listen carefully, diligently, intelligently .....
fearless of any personal "consequences" of hearing properly. (such
as persecution or rejection!) And it follows of course, that APATHY about
listening properly to this commandment from God, or refusal to listen at all,
or deliberate and dishonest distortion of what we hear, in order to make what
we say more "acceptable" to others ..... will be an absolute
barrier to our obedience to the rest of it! By
saying that it is the greatest of all commandments, Jesus has made it so
fundamental to FAITH in the ONE TRUE God of the Bible, that we MUST make
certain that we hear correctly. We cannot afford to be wrong about this
greatest commandment of all! JESUS HAS MADE IT ESSENTIAL TO THE GOSPEL! And
when we have heard properly ourselves, we must not be reluctant to tell
others what we have heard about this greatest commandment of all! If it is so
important to Jesus, we should never be guilty of hiding this God given light
under a bushel (Matthew 5:15) for the unworthy motive of making an "easier road"
for ourselves. PART
2 - HEAR THE COMMANDMENT WHICH SAYS THAT GOD IS ONE (ONLY) There
is no other God apart from the one defined by Moses. This God (YAHWEH) says
of himself, "I am the first and the last; besides me there is no God." (Isaiah 44:6) And
Jesus repeats that in different words, when he says that HIS FATHER is the
ONLY true God. (John 17:3) So
when people don't listen properly to this second part, and instead re-invent
God from ONE to make him THREE-IN-ONE, or "compound unity", or some
other illogical impossibility which requires us to throw our MINDS away, the
inevitable conclusion is that, for whatever reason (either through ignorance,
delusion, or wilful rebellion? -- see more about this below) they are in
fundamental DISOBEDIENCE to the greatest commandment of all. If
WE want to obey this commandment to know and believe with ALL our mind and
heart, that God is ONE, we will have to HEAR carefully and prayerfully until
we KNOW what that means. Otherwise
we will never be able to "graduate" to Part 3, and truly love God
as we should. PART
3 - HEAR THE COMMANDMENT WHICH SAYS TO LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR BEING. This
is the ultimate goal of this greatest commandment of all. The first two parts
are "stepping stones" -- absolute pre-requisites -- to keeping the
third part! Without that foundation, we will never be able to know enough
ABOUT Him, to KNOW HIM PERSONALLY for who and what he is. And if we can't do
that, we shall never be able to LOVE HIM enough to devote ourselves to
keeping the rest of his "lesser" commandments -- with ALL our
heart, mind, and soul and strength. Jesus
tells us this in John 17:3 -- but with one added dimension. He says that receiving ETERNAL
life is conditional on KNOWING his Father as the ONLY TRUE GOD,
and knowing himself as someone else -- who is NOT the only true God,
but the Messiah sent by God. In
this verse, "knowing" is a far stronger word than
merely "knowing about". Jesus also means
"knowing personally" -- in the personal relationship which exists
between a Father and his children, or between two brothers who are also
"best friends". Of
course we must know something ABOUT God before we can love him. You can't
love someone you know nothing about. Nor can you love someone properly, if
your love is based on LIES about who they are, and what they are. This
greatest COMMANDMENT to know that the ONE LORD of Israel - who is also the
Father of Jesus - is the only true God, is given for good reason. It is THE
foundation on which TRUE love and obedience, can grow to its fullness. (Ephesians 3:14-21) Caution
here! Even if we do have it right, it doesn't guarantee that we WILL DO THAT!
It is OUR responsibility to use our FREE WILL CHOICE to exercise our heart,
and soul, and mind, and strength, to love God. Notably,
exercising the mind to love God, DOES NOT MEAN throwing our mind
away to blindly accept illogical lies! IGNORANCE - is dispelled by knowledge. We get that by reading the Bible! DELUSION
- can only be cured by removing the cause of
delusion! We must learn both to love the truth and to hate our sins, so that
God will not send delusion! (2 Thessalonians
2:11-12) WILFUL
DISOBEDIENCE - is cured by
repentance! In this context in particular, that means repenting from the
wrong motives that lead to suppression of truth, and it means acceptance of
the consequences of proclaiming truth. Some of the most common of these false
motivations are: *
Desire to continue in
sin, which is stronger than fear of judgement. (Romans
1:18-20,32) *
Avoidance of persecution.
"Acceptance" by the majority, to "swim in their bigger pool”. (Matthew 13:20-21) *
Coveting a
"ministry" not available to those who reject the confusion of
Trinitarian creeds. "All these I will give you, if you will fall down and
worship me." (Matthew 4:9) Allon |