Stay The Course – The Second Great Commandment

Stay the Course

The Second Great Commandment

Matthew 22.38, 39

“This is the great and the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

John 13.6

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”

If God has called you, don’t let anyone talk you out of it.

Peter is the original day-late-and-a-dollar-short disciple. He tends to see things after the fact, and then tries to make a good show of setting things right. He’s just like us, in other words. Here he puts on this big demonstration of humility before the others (doubtless following up on Jesus’ teaching about Kingdom greatness – see how humble, and thus, how great he is!). He says, in effect, “No, Lord, this is not right. You shouldn’t be doing this. This is not for You.” Sometimes when we take up some work of ministry, out of a sense of being called to it by the Lord, others will try to discourage us. You shouldn’t be doing this. You’re wasting your time on ungrateful people. Your time is too valuable for this. And so forth. They’re doing this not for our sakes, but for theirs, because if it’s good for us to do such service to others, it’s probably something they should consider, too. True love, though, understands that, when God has called us to a task, we need to stay at it until He and He alone releases us.

Have you ever begun something, out of a sense of being called by God, only to give it up when it got too difficult, or when others challenged your involvement?

—

“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.