Ich und Du
Matthew 22:34-40
“34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 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. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
What is the most important thing is our Christian life? When posed with this question during Living Life Bible Study, many had responded things like evangelizing, loving other, serving the church.
But what does the Bible say?
There are three things mentioned in this passage by Jesus.
The first is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind. There are many instances in the Bible where this is re-iterated. We are continually reminded throughout Deuteronomy (6:4-5, 10:12-13, 11:13-14) to obey His commandments and to serve the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind for our own good and benefit. By doing so, God promises to give us “the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil”.
The second is like the first: to love your neighbors with all our heart, soul, and mind, just as you love yourself. Thus, we can extrapolate that to love our neighbors with all your heart, soul and mind, we must also love ourselves in the same way. Thus, the third commandment must be by extension, to also love ourselves with all our heart, soul, and mind.
But one might ask: how? How is it possible to love God, others, AND yourself wholeheartedly, love yourself selfishly, and love others selflessly? Instead of thinking about HOW we should love God, others, and ourselves, we should shift our perspective and think about how we can have a relationship with God, others, and ourselves with all our heart, soul, and mind.
We have a tendency to put effort and do our best with things we feel are important. Pastor Daniel mentioned a book by Jewish philosopher Martin Buber called “I and Thou” which states that human life finds meaningfulness in relationships. We can probably relate. Whenever we are sad or happy, lonely or joyful, what are our relationships like? God created us to have relationships. It’s not possible for us to exist alone.
In this book, there are 2 types of relationships:
The first relationship is an “I” and “it” relationship. The “it” is an object of my use or object of my purpose. The use and value of this person is determined by how I experience or see this person. Thus this person is objectified and without us, this person does not exist and is merely an object. According to the author, most people that he encountered had this sort of “I” and “it” relationship, whether they were the person who uses or the person being used.
The second relationship is an “I” and “thou” (formal you). In contrast to the previous “it”, “thou” exists with its own usefulness, identity, and value. Their value is not determined by how they are seen.
We need to transform our relationships from “I” and “it” to a “I” and “thou” relationship. The answer the author found in pursuing an “I” and “thou” relationship came only when encountering an “eternal Thou.” Although the author is not Christian and does not specify who the “eternal Thou” is, we as believers can understand that he was speaking about God. Without God, we cannot hope to transform our relationships in this way.
In order to do this, we must reflect on our personal relationships and understanding. Often times, Christians tend to believe the order of emphasis in relationship or understanding starts first with God, others, then oneself. However, from Biblical understanding, we should instead focus first on God, then ourselves, then others. Why? Because unless we have an encounter with our “eternal Thou”, we cannot truly understand who we are and will not be able build proper relationship with yourself, nor with others by extension.
We need to think about our relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and truly reflect. The Bible encourages us to think about this with all our heart, soul and mind to reflect. PD also encourages us to do this as our pastor and is not asking us to be a good Christian, but to seriously, wholeheartedly with a genuine heart and reflect.
This is our homework. We need to find our own answer.
Reflection Questions:
What is your relationship with God, yourself, and others?
Have you truly encountered your “eternal Thou”? If yes, how has it affected your life and relationship with yourself and others?
