What is fundamental to a Christian life?

What are the fundamentals of living a Christian life?

We aren't the first to ask this question. In fact, the Pharisees challenged Jesus with a similar question when they asked him what the greatest, or most important, commandment was in Matthew 22:36. His answer? Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Not only this, but he went on to explain a second commandment that is almost as important as the first: to love your neighbor as you love yourself. These two commandments– loving God above all things and loving your neighbor– are related to each other in a very close way. Let's break this down:

1. Defining “love”

Corinthians 13:4-8 defines love like this: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” This is fundamental to understanding how to love God and how to love our neighbor.

2. Loving God with your entire being.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” There is a lot packed into this one little verse. First, note the structure in which this verse is written. Jesus could have said just as easy to love God “with all your heart, soul, and mind.” Instead, he chose to emphasize the importance of all three in saying “with all your heart AND with all your soul AND with all your mind.” (The structure of this sentence with the use of the word and is consistent with the original Greek text.) Jesus purposefully states this commandment with this special emphasis to get his audience to understand that loving God is not defined by observable, outward actions. Outward actions are only fruits of this love. Instead, love for God stems from the heart, soul, and mind. It is a person’s entire being that is in complete devotion to serving Him, not the “mere external acknowledgment and obedience” as an NIV study note states in relevance to that particular verse.  

A second thing to take notice of is the very personal way in which Jesus communicates this commandment. Wherever we see the word Lord in the Bible, it means that we can trace the translation back to the Hebrew, Yahweh. Yahweh is God’s personal name. Also note how Jesus says, “Yahweh YOUR God.” This implies that there must be a personal relationship between the person and God.

3. Loving others as much as yourself

If we love God and if we have a full understanding of God’s surpassing love for us, we will– by the very nature of being filled by the Spirit– express love towards others. Again, just like loving God, loving our neighbors begins in the heart (you could call it a brotherly or a sisterly love). The fruits of that love are outward actions. An important question to answer regarding loving others is whom to include in the “neighbor” category. Jesus says in Matt. 5:44 to “love your enemies…”. Thus, all people, including Christians and non-Christians, friends and enemies, are to be loved in the same way that Jesus exemplified love to us.

4. A final application to Calculus

Matt. 6:24 says, "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

I think that our lives can look similar to a piecewise discontinuity (a graph where there is a line on one side and a line on the other side, but they do not meet at the same place) in terms of where our treasure is. (“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matt. 6:21). On one side of our lives, it looks like we are approaching a point where we love God and want to serve him, but on the other side, we approach things like money, greed, and selfish ambition. These two things cannot be one and the same. They cannot meet at the same point. Just as light cannot be darkness, righteousness cannot be unrighteousness, and you cannot serve two masters.

This is a piecewise function. There are two side of this line, but there is a point where they do not meet each other. Image source: Brainly.com.