Guiding Principle
It is easier to remember one thing than a whole bunch of things.
One of the scribes came near and heard Jesus and the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question. - Mark 12:28–34
Jesus distilled all the laws and commandments into something much simpler. He created an easy way to benchmark our actions and thoughts.
Are we showing our love for God and our neighbor by doing this?
If so, we are on the right track. If not, we are off.
Simple, right? Why do we expect everything to be so difficult?
Maybe we want it that way. If you think about it, the more complicated we make it, the more comfortable we are making excuses for not doing these things.
God knows we look to place blame on others when we fail. Adam said it was the woman who gave him the fruit and Eve blamed the serpent.
So, at the very start of Creation, we have denial and blame, and back then, the rules were even simpler!
It doesn't matter how easy or hard it is to follow the path to the kingdom. We will find a way to mess it up and go astray. It is in our nature to defy authority, and we view these guiding principles God gives us as too authoritative to follow.
So, we miss out.
God's help is there to make our lives better, here, now, and beyond.
When we choose to ignore Him, we make life more complicated and difficult than it needs to be.
Period.
More to come...