In order to keep things simple . . . Jesus commanded his followers to do two things: to love God and neighbor. In the Gospel of Mark, he stated it this way: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Over in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus said: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
In answering a question about which is the greatest commandment in the Law, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus answers: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”
In the words of Jesus, himself, we have our task set before us . . . to love God and others. That’s it. I doubt if there is anyone who follows Jesus who would disagree that this is what the followers of Jesus have been tasked to do. It is written in black and white . . . or maybe red if you have a Bible that puts the words of Jesus in red . . . for all of us to see. There is no denying it as Jesus said it.
Also, Jesus never promised following in his footsteps and doing this task would be easy. Again, I doubt if there is anyone who follows Jesus who would argue with that statement. Faith is hard . . . or at least parts of it is hard.
The task of loving God and others is an inward and outward sort of thing. In the first step we enter into an intimate relationship with God . . . we love God and God loves us. And, that it great, but that is not enough for either Jesus nor God. No, there has to be an outward expression of that intimacy and love; which brings us to the second part of that expression of faith. We are to take that love and enter into relationship with others . . . we are to seek that intimacy with others. Inwardly we love God, outwardly we love others. To have one and not the other is not to fully realize faith in its fullness.
Again, I do not think there is much argument in this idea . . . love God, love others. Having observed the “church” and “faithful” as a pastor for well over thirty years now, it is my estimation that for most it is easier to love God than to love others. I think that for the most part we are good at loving God, but we have a more difficult time loving others. We are good at the inward part, but not so good at the outward part. Therein lies the problem.
Duplicity.
Duplicity is in the dictionary as “deceitfulness in speech or conduct, as by speaking or acting in two different ways to different people concerning the same matter.” To help understand its meaning a little better, the dictionary also shares these synonyms: deceit, deception, dissimulation, fraud, guile, hypocrisy, and trickery. I think that we all have run into situations in which we have experienced duplicity . . . especially if any of us even have an inkling of politics in the last five to ten years. Politics seems to be an area where duplicity is widely practiced and accepted with no consequences.
Whether or not duplicity is an acceptable practice . . . of which I say it is not, as the followers of Jesus duplicity is wrong. For the followers caught up in the act of duplicity . . . knowingly or unknowingly, I contend that it is nothing more than an expression of the emptiness of faith for those individuals.
I think that the Apostle Paul was attempting to address this issue in the reading we heard this morning. I think Paul was admonishing the followers of Jesus to be consistent in their faith . . . that what was a part of them on the inside was expressed in the same manner on the outside. He wanted a congruence between word and action.
In the first five verses we hear Paul speak about love, and that that “love must be sincere.” Love is the key . . . love God and love others as you love God and yourself. In this understanding of love there is no room for “ifs, ands, or buts” . . . no reservations, restrictions, or excuses. Everyone is to be loved . . . everyone . . . including those who treat us poorly. Instead of reacting in the same manner as those who treat us poorly, says the apostle, we are to treat them with love. In doing this, says the apostle, “. . . you will heap burning coals on his head.”
The Apostle Paul does not believe in solving differences with attitudes and actions that go against the goodness of love. He states at the end of our reading this morning: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
As the followers of Jesus we should heed the words of the apostle . . . we should live a life of consistency when it comes to our faith . . . our words and actions had better mean the same thing to whomever we speak. We should not be saying one thing to one person, while saying something else to another. We should not be qualifying our statements about loving God and others with “ifs, ands, or buts.” If we are going to proclaim that all are welcome into the fellowship and family of God . . . into the sanctuary of this church . . . to a place at this table; then we are going to have to do it with no reservations, restrictions, or excuses.
We cannot allow the practice of duplicity to infect our faith as it is practiced, because it is not faith . . . it is an expression of the emptiness of our faith. And, I realize that this is easier said than done, after all, we are human. As humans we want to loved, received, and accepted by others . . . and, sometimes that means we place ourselves into situations in which we are not alway congruent in our faith. Situations in which our words and actions do not always jive. We are trying to protect ourselves from getting hurt.
To which the Apostle Paul tells us to love . . . just love, love, love . . . even those who would hate you, hurt you, even kill you . . . love. If you are going to say it as your belief, then live it as your belief.
In this day and age of duplicity we must make our faith consistent with the call to love God and others . . . all. Anything less would be to join the ranks of the duplicitous. In an adaption of the words of the psalmist in Psalm 19:14: “May the words of our mouths and the meditation of our hearts and the actions of our lives be pleasing in your sight, Lord, our Rock and Redeemer.” Amen.
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