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At this point in the Lent Encounter journey, you might be wondering how everything we’ve explored so far can impact your life.
Lent is often a season where people take action by giving something up: chocolate or sugar in tea, for example. That’s no bad thing; fasting has a long and venerable tradition in Lent’s history! But, traditionally Lent has also included the more active disciplines of prayer and almsgiving.
Almsgiving is an old-fashioned word that many people translate as giving to charity. Again, that’s not wrong at all! But its meaning is also wider than that: it’s about taking definite action (even little actions) to form and shape our lives in line with the gospel and with God’s word. This week, Leonie Dorland from the Bible Engagement team will help us to explore how we can do that in our lives. We’ll also share with you some concrete ways in which you can take action for the gospel in collaboration with Bible Society.
Read today's devotional. Or click the play button to listen.
Throughout Mark chapter 12, Jesus is quizzed and tested by Jewish religious leaders. Impressed by Jesus’ teaching, a theological scholar asks him which commandment is the most important. Although this leader seems to have purer intentions than previous questioners, Jesus’ response perhaps carries a gentle rebuke, because it’s so basic – first love the Lord your God, and second love your neighbour!
Matthew’s Gospel adds this detail about Jesus’ response: ‘On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’ (Matthew 22.40, ESV). The implication is that all of the commandments are equally important: all of them flesh out what it looks like to love God and others wholeheartedly, with every fibre of our being, in every possible situation and opportunity.
It sounds straightforward, but that doesn’t make it easy. We are often motivated by love for self, and it can seem impossible to surrender our whole being to loving God and others. We can’t even guarantee that our ‘neighbour’ will receive it as loving when we love them in a way that is shaped by our love for God.
Our society seems to define love as always affirming, feel-good and non-judgemental. But we only have to look at Jesus’ example to see that God’s definition of love is very different. Jesus didn’t always affirm what people were doing and his words didn’t always make people feel good! Yet nobody has ever shown greater love for God and people than Jesus. He was the only one who lived out these commandments perfectly.
As he hung on the cross, people he was dying to save mocked and reviled him, but he completed his work out of love for God and love for us anyway. The measure of love is not determined by how people receive it.
As it says in 1 John 3.16, ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters’ (NIV).
Take action:
Read Exodus 20.1–17 and/or Deuteronomy 5.1—6.25. Notice how each commandment relates to loving God and/or loving others.
Reading the commandments can feel daunting because we can’t fail to notice that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3.23), including us. But read Romans 5.6–11 and Romans 8.1: they are full of good news for sinners. Spend time in repentance and then praise and thanks.
Loving God and others isn’t always easy and it involves costly self-sacrifice. Ask God to help you as you follow Jesus’ example.
This reflection was written by Leonie Dorland, from the Bible Engagement team at Bible Society.
If you have two minutes: Listen to the audio reflection and ponder how it might be relevant in your life.
If you have up to ten minutes: Read the Bible passage and listen to the audio reflection; you might want to keep a small journal, or note on your phone, to jot down words and phrases that jump out at you. Finish with a brief prayer to put what you have read and heard into practice.
What if I miss a day(s)?: Don’t worry, life happens! Just pick up the devotional again on the current day, and, if you wish, you can use the space for reflection on Sundays to listen to those reflections you may have missed.
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