The first and great commandment

I've been thinking about how so often when people criticize religion they say something like, "you have so many 'thou shalt nots'". And when you start listing them that's true - there are all kinds of things we have been told to avoid. But religious or not, if you start to list all of the things that are bad ideas you will come up with a super long list! I think we get caught up in all of the "thou shalt nots" too much though, because Christ told us that there really are only 2 commandments - and neither of them is a "thou shalt not"!

Matthew 22:37-40 reads, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

If Christ could have his way he wouldn't have had to teach anything else but to love God, love ourselves, and love all we come in contact with at least as much as we love ourselves. If you're struggling with a long list of things you aren't supposed to do, just remember that the "thou shalt nots" are only there because we're just not as good as we could be at "thou shalt LOVE".

-Lisa