Rethinking the Church | The Ultimate Simplification

37 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 greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40 (NRSVUE)

Imagine trying to explain your job to someone in just two sentences. Most of us would struggle with that kind of simplification. Our work involves dozens of different tasks, multiple responsibilities, complex relationships, and countless details that change from day to day. But what if someone asked you to boil down the work of the church to its absolute essence?

That's exactly what happened to Jesus. A legal expert, trying to trip him up, asked him to identify the greatest commandment. This wasn't a casual question—it was meant to be a trap. The expert was probably expecting Jesus to pick one of the Ten Commandments, which would inevitably offend someone and cause controversy.

But Jesus that's not what Jesus did. Instead of picking from the Ten Commandments, he went deeper. He quoted part of the Shema, one of the most basic declarations of our faith: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind." Then he connected it to another passage: "You must love your neighbor as you love yourself."

With these two commandments, Jesus summarized everything. He took the entire Old Testament—all 600+ laws, all the prophetic messages, all the wisdom literature—and distilled it into two simple statements. Love God. Love people.

This is revolutionary because it means that no matter how complicated our lives get, no matter how many different roles we play or responsibilities we carry, the work of the church always comes down to these two things. Are we loving God with our whole selves? Are we loving the people around us the way we love ourselves?

When we're at work dealing with a difficult customer, the question is: How do we love God and love our neighbor in this moment? When we're stuck in traffic and someone cuts us off, the question is: How do we love God and love our neighbor right now? When we're having a disagreement with our spouse or dealing with a challenging family situation, the question remains the same.

So Jesus's answer to the questions, "What is the greatest commandment?" is simple enough for a child to understand, but comprehensive enough to guide us through every situation we'll ever face. We don't need a theology degree to know what the work of the church is. We don't need to memorize hundreds of rules or study complex doctrines. We just need to love God and love each other.

This doesn't make the Christian life easy—loving well is often the hardest thing we can do. But it does make it clear. When we're unsure what to do, we can ask: What would love look like in this situation? How can I honor God and serve others through my response?

The work of the church isn't complicated. It's challenging, but it's not complicated. Love God. Love people. Everything else flows from there.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for making the work of faith so clear. Help us resist the temptation to make following you more complicated than it needs to be. Teach us what it means to love you with our whole hearts, minds, and souls. Show us how to love our neighbors as ourselves, especially when it's difficult. Make love the center of everything we do, so that our lives become authentic expressions of your heart. Amen.