A workshop, a reflection on truth and love, and a correction

It’s good to be back with you, blogging again at UniversalFamily.org. I am celebrating the publication of my new book, A Taste of Joy and Liberty: A Philosopher Encounters the Gospel of Jesus.

There is some business that I want to mention at the end of this post, and it connects directly with some of the most important teachings of Jesus. Here is the question that I want to answer today. Jesus taught that we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength—and our neighbor as ourselves. How does this teaching relate to Jesus’ description of the basic relationship of God and humankind?

                  Watch the video . . . or listen to the podcast episode.

                  Here’s the one-paragraph summary of my answer.

From the teachings of Moses, Jesus chose what he would call “the greatest commandment,” plus he added a second commandment “like it.” Jesus first said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Jesus added “and with all your mind”). And he also taught: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Dt 6:4, Lv 19:18, Mk 12:28). It was liberating for many people in Jesus’s day to embrace this simple summary of the law. These commandments represented for him the first great step of putting into practice the truths of our basic relationships with God and humans: that God is our Father, and that we are family.

Let’s explain this summary answer a bit. Jesus taught that God is a loving and merciful Father. Sometimes I say, “a motherly Father.” If we work with this teaching, if we experiment by taking the time to open ourselves as a child of God to the love of God, if we do this persistently and at length, we can trust. Sooner or later our prayer is answered. Once we begin to experience the love of God, it becomes natural to love God in return. This we can do in a wholehearted way or a half-hearted way. But in order to develop our relationship with the Creator of the universe, we do well to mobilize our entire personality to love God in return. That’s what the greatest commandment is calling us to do.

The more time we invest in loving God wholeheartedly, the more we want to become like God and do his will.

And God wants us to love the neighbor as ourselves. We can do this in a wholehearted way or in a half-hearted way. But whenever we succeed in a wholehearted way, it feels wonderful. That wonderfulness grows, since learning to love God and the neighbor continues throughout a lifetime and more.

Now to my business.

In response to today’s question, I gave a one-paragraph summary answer to today’s question. I was reading my correction of a paragraph which was initially printed in a very confusing way. In A Taste of Joy and Liberty, in chapter two, “The Historical Jesus,” in the second section—”The Inspiring Leadership of Moses”— the last paragraph was seriously in need of correction (page 12). I apologize.

In the future, newly printed copies will contain this correction.

Thank you for your understanding. And so for now, no matter what is going on in our world and in your life, always know that you are a divinely created, infinitely loved, free-will son or daughter of God, whose spirit dwells within you!

Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/@jacub-gomez-447561/