Matthew 22:34-40 (NLT)
But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Over the past few weeks, we've been talking about Radius. We've covered our mission and talked about why we gather. The final component is really the meat of our mission; to move out in ever widening circles to change our world.
We can't do that from sitting inside a church building. We can't do that if we are only a church on Sundays. We have to be Radius everyday.
Jesus gave us all our mission,
Acts 1:8 (NLT)
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
And in Matthew, he gave us the rules to follow while seeking to accomplish that mission. You may have thought, as I once did, that we had to follow some long list of rules. But really, it's quite a short, common sense, list.
- Love God
- Love your neighbor
Somewhere along the line, we got in our heads that in order to be a Christian you had to follow a list of Dos and Don'ts. We had to judge others, and think ourselves better than everyone else. That doesn't sound like anything people want to be a part of. But from what I've been learning over the past 10 years is that isn't true at all.
So what does it look like to love God and love your neighbor?
It means getting outside the church and meeting people where they are. It means praising our creator for all he's done for us. It means seeking his will for our lives. If you've been paying attention to social media this week, you've probably seen pictures of people from Radius loving their neighbors.
We love St. Pete. We think this is an awesome town, filled with amazing people, and we want to be out serving our community however we can. So, whether we are feeding people, paying for their parking or laundry, blessing businesses in some small way, providing for peoples' basic needs, or just taking the time to hand-write a thank you note, we want to be out, loving our neighbors. We want to be a tangible, visible evidence of Jesus in our community.
If you're looking to experience God's love, and share that love with others, come check us out this Sunday.
#RadiusLoveStPete
