Gayle wrote on her blog today, "Can we imagine God commanding us, as His servants, to cheat others, to abort our children, to tear down and not build up?
What if, in every circumstance, we bowed before the Lord and said, "I belong to You; tell me what You would have me do!" We would need no other commandments or laws if we loved the Lord with our whole hearts, our whole minds, and our whole strength."http://onebirdwatching.blogspot.com
This was based on a quote from the Old Testament, Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole mind, and with your whole strength (Deut. 6:5). Perhaps the reason for the earthly journey of Jesus was to remind humankind that loving The Divine in the abstract is the basis for all meaning, but is never enough. We must see The Divinity in each other and the rest of creation, and love that, too.
Mt 22:36 “[Jesus], which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” This reflects what Jesus, as a devout Jew, had learned, Lv 19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I've read that Torah scholars believe that the only part of their sacred scripture that was written directly by the "Finger of God" is the ten commandments, which specifically teach us how to love one another. It seems to me that the test of the sacredness of a scripture is how it places people in the eternal plan. We are all important, and we must seek always to find and nourish The Divinity in each other and in the rest of creation.
