The Greatest Commandment
Over the years, I have learned a lot from reading Billy Graham's books and watching his classic sermons on TBN at 10:00 PM on Saturdays. He is my all time favorite preacher and someone I really respect. But I like to compare his explanations for different Bible verses with other study references and what I think certain Bible verses mean.
Several times I have heard Billy Graham mention that the sin that God hates most is idolatory.
Idolatry is anything that we spend more of our time doing, thinking about, talking about, and enjoying more than spending time with God. A lot of us think that idols don't exist today because they were statutes and carvings people in the Bible worshiped. However, idols still exist, but they are in different forms (for example - cars, trucks, boats, houses, clothing, TV's, the outdoors, movies, sports, cell phones). All of these things aren't neccessarily sinful. For example, there isn't anything wrong with watching sports - when an athlete does something amazing - thank God for giving the athletes such amazing ability, and communicate with God like this while you watch.
Idolatry is also mentioned in the 10 Commandments. To go back to Billy Graham's quote, "The sin that God hates the most is idolatry." You may read through the 10 Commandments and say, "Murder seems a lot more serious than idolatry, so how is idolatry the sin that God hates the most?" Many people don't realize that if we have broken one Commandment, we are guilty of all. Also, someone may not physically murder another person, but if someone is angry with another person without a cause, they are as guilty as someone who physically murdered another person.
That still doesn't answer the question. The answer to this all important question is Mark 12:29-31 which says, "And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."
Therefore, if Jesus said that is the "greatest" Commandment, if we break this commandment we are commiting the "greatest" sin (According to Billy Graham, the sin that God hates the most is idolatry, and in the next paragraph you will see that Mark 12:29-31 matches up perfectly with the definition of idolatry in the second paragraph of this sermon.). This shouldn't be confused with the unpardonable sin that the Pharisees commited in the 12th chapter of Matthew. The simple fact that you are interested in reading this, proves that you haven't commited the unpardonable sin. I have a website that talks about this topic, so just click this link or type this web address in the long rectangle box at the top of this page and hit enter - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/unpardonablesin
So lets go back to Mark 12:29-31. If Jesus taught that there is a greatest commandment, then it is very important to know what it means -
This means that whenever you aren't trying very hard to do things such as -
1. spend more of your money on things like evangelistic associations, charities, and things for God’s purposes instead of entertainment and material type things (Matthew 6:19-21), if you have money left over from providing yourself or your family with food, clothing, and shelter, you need to be willing to give to those who have needs and/or ask the church that you attend and support financially to help meet their needs (Luke 12:16-21);
2. talk about You and the Bible with people who will listen (Deuteronomy 6:7), teach people the Bible (Matthew 28:19), counsel with people who are having problems (Galatians 6:2), encourage others (Hebrews 10:25), correct other believers when they sin (Galatians 6:1), and tell people how to become Christians (2 Timothy 4:5) by mouth, through email or social media, and/or by handing out or dropping off Christian tracts in places like stores or restaurants where people can pick them up;
3. feed, clothe, and provide shelter and financial help for the less fortunate, and visit people in hospitals and jails (Mark 12:30-31);
4. do acts of kindness for people that will make God look good in front of others (for example - cook, clean, do people’s yard work, help people shop, wash people’s cars, fix people’s appliances) (Matthew 5:16);
5. try to not avoid witnessing to and/or helping others because you're afraid of getting killed or robbed (Matthew 10:28);
(The 1-5 examples that were just mentioned describe - thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy strength.)
you try to -
6. let Jesus become the Lord of your life (2 Corinthians 4:3-5; Romans 10:9, Acts 2:36) by taking over every “moment” of your life from this moment on - Whatever you do during each day (eat, drink, get ready for work or school, drive, shop, watch a sporting event, or mow the lawn etc.), you want to try to do it to please God and try to think about things such as what you’ve read in the Bible (Psalm 119:15); pray (Matthew 6:9-13); think about things such as a miracle that you witnessed or heard of, someone who got saved, some act of kindness that you saw or heard of, or imagine what will be going on in Heaven when you get there (Philippians 4:8) while you eat, drink, get ready for work or school, drive, shop, watch a sporting event, or mow the lawn etc. (1 Corinthians 10:31);
7. read through the Bible and do what it says to do and don’t do what it says not to do (James 1:22);
8. think about what you’ve read (Psalm 119:15);
9. think about things such as a miracle that you witnessed or heard of, someone who got saved, some act of kindness that you saw or heard of, or imagine what will be going on in Heaven when you get there (Philippians 4:8);
10. pray how Jesus taught in Matthew 6:9-13 by (admiring God, asking God to forgive you when you sin and try to not do it again (for a list of sins to avoid, please follow this website thank God for blessings and difficult circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18), and ask God to help you and others);
11. try to do whatever the Holy Spirit gives me thoughts to do each day no matter how challenging they may be or who or what tries to stop me (Ephesians 4:30);
(The 6-11 examples that were just mentioned describe - Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy mind.)
and you do all of those things because you want to please and make God look good in front of others and sincerely care about others and want to help their physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or financial needs
(All of those examples that were just mentioned describe - Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul.).
Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself means that if you come in contact with someone who, for example, is hungry, in need of shelter (However, if a stranger comes to your door and wants to move in, it would be good advice to take them to a homeless shelter.), clothing, or money (If someone needs a lot of money, you should ask the church that you support financially or a church in your area to help with the cost.), you should help meet those needs (Also, tell God that you are doing it for the Lord Jesus and are thankful for the oppertunity. This is described in Colossians 3:17.) because you are likely blessed with resources such as those. The Parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25–37 gives the perfect example of this. The Samaritan in this parable did all that he could do to take care of the man that fell among thieves and was left half dead.
In conclusion, if you have never prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, also known as getting saved, (by trusting the blood that Jesus shed on the cross to erase your sins so you can go to Heaven when you leave this world and believe that Jesus arose from the dead), you need to be willing "from this moment on and for the rest of your life" to obey Mark 12:29-31, then your heart is prepared to get saved because people need to be willing to repent before they trust Jesus' work on the cross to save them (explained in this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/theanswer
If you would like to get saved right now, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you haven’t been living these ways, ask God to forgive you. Then, “from this moment on”, try your absolute best (explained in Revelation 3:19) to begin living these ways, with God helping you change.
If in the future you haven’t tried your absolute best to live these ways, then ask God to forgive you for not living these ways. After that, “from this moment on” try your absolute best (explained in Revelation 3:19) to begin living these ways again, with God helping you change (Continue to follow this pattern every time you fail to live these ways.) For more information on how to rededicate your life to the Lord, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure