division into two mutually exclusive, opposed, or contradictory groups: a dichotomy between thought and action."
Anyone who has been a follower of Jesus for any length of time should be familiar with the greatest commandment: to love the Lord God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength, and all of our mind. Luke 10:25-28. But, what does that mean exactly? Or, more to the point, what does loving God with everything we have actually look like in practice?
The short answer is that I have no idea. Really, I don't. In fact, I am sure I have never seen another human being model what it looks like to be completely devoted to God.
One of the reasons I have difficulty comprehending what it means to love God is that the scriptures could not be more clear that we can love God or we can love the world -- but we cannot love both. It really is one or the other.
I know, I know -- we want to love both. We want our cake and to eat it too. In fact, when we get the things of the world that we love we call it a "blessing." After all, if God loves us surely He wants us to be happy! We want one foot in the God camp and one foot in the world camp. We want to straddle the fence. The only problem is that God does not extend us that luxury.
The reality is that Christians (including myself) testify to their love for the world and/or the things of this world all the time. "I love my new car." "I love my house." "I love to play golf." "I love the Dallas Cowboys." "I love to watch The Bachelorette." "I love [name the sports star, rock star, movie star, ....]"
And, really, its not just that we frequently proclaim our love for the things of this world, but our actions frequently confirm that our hearts are really tied to those things. After all, those things we say we love usually consume most of our time, most of our money and most of our energy. How much of our time, money and energy do we actually devote to God's kingdom, as opposed to our own kingdoms (unless we are in paid ministry -- which maybe doesn't really count)?
Don't misunderstand me. I get the difficulty of truly putting God first in our lives and truly not loving the things of this world. But, I wonder how many of us actually even see the issue -- much less struggle with it? I wonder if we have forgotten completely that God is a jealous God? I wonder if we have forgotten about El Kanah? Exodus 34:14. I wonder if we come anywhere close to recognizing the idols in our lives?
Just some questions.
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