One verb, two objects

Think of all we do to please God:

• build temples, organizations, traditions;
• practice ritual;
• enforce beliefs;
• cross oceans, continents, jungles, rivers to win proselytes.

Think of the blood of religious

• sacrifice,
• persecution,
• warfare.

Jesus of Nazareth boiled down real faith in God to one verb, and two direct objects.

Love God.

Love your neighbor as yourself. 

What does the Almighty think of all the religious activities we undertake in the Almighty’s name?

Jesus suggested that God did not outright oppose them. The inner nitpicker in us deserves her or his moment in the sun. Of that most sacred of all religious obligations—tithing—Jesus held the opinion that we ought not to neglect it.

But justice, mercy and faith are the big ticket items.

For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.

Matt 23:23 (NRSV)

One verb: love. Agapao in Greek, meaning 100% self-giving love.

Two objects: God (with all our being) and neighbor (as we love ourselves).

Pretty simple.

Hard to mess up—unless you’re looking for a back way out.

In the God Sightings One Year Bible, the great commandments (February 3) are followed by the Ten Commandments (February 4).