First Things First

The Keystone Principle

The Keystone is the last stone placed in an archway. Literally, it is the piece that holds the arch together and allows it to bear weight. Figuratively, it is something on which other things depend for support.

This figurative sense of keystone shows up in our everyday life.

The keystone of troubleshooting computers - Turn it off and back on.

The keystone of physical well-being - Drink enough water.

The keystone of a healthy family - Eat dinner together.

Last week we introduced the three simple foundations of basic Christianity. They are:

Love God

Love your neighbours

Pray for your enemies

This week we will look at the keystone of these three habits - loving God. This comes from Matthew 22:34-40.

Matthew 22:34–40 ESV

But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

The greatest commandment is to love God. On this depends all the Law and the Prophets. In other words, loving God is the cornerstone. We can’t properly love our neighbour without loving God. We won’t effectively pray for our enemies without loving God. We cannot walk in the light of the word (the Law and the Prophets) without loving God.

Let’s look at two aspects of loving God. First we will look at why we should love God above all else. Then we will look at how we can love God.

Why should I love God?

Perhaps as you’ve been listening this far, there has been an inner monologue that sounded something like this,

“That’s right! The number one thing is to love God. If I can learn the key to loving God, then I can be a the sort of Christian God will really be proud of. I can’t wait to get to the part of the message where he says what to do.”

We must remember that our love for God is not what we offer him in order for him to accept us. Our love for God is our response to what he has done in Christ to make us acceptable to him. Is is not our works for God that make him love us. It is his work in Christ that reveals his great love for us.

1 John 4:19 ESV

We love because he first loved us.

This will sound like an elementary lesson to many of us. Pride will cause us to miss out on its importance . This tendency to try to earn God’s approval will creep up like a weed in your heart throughout your life. Trying to earn God’s love will separate you from the peace and joy that are your inheritance as a child of God.

How do you know this weed of earning God’s love is rearing its ugly head?

You think God must accept you because you read the whole Bible last year.

You are sure God approves of you because you give more than 10% of your income to the church.

You beat yourself up when you mess up and it takes you a while to regain your confidence before God.

You look down on others whom you do not perceive as being as spiritual as you.

You feel driven and compelled to produce, without a corresponding sence of the peace and joy of the Lord.

These signs, and others, will be true of any of us at different moments. When you notice any of these signs, let it be a reminder to consider how much God loves you!

How can I be confident of God’s love?

We have already seen that our good works are not what should give us confidence of God’s love. We often try to get a sense of God’s love from our circumstances. We assume, somewhat foolishly, that if God loves us then life will go smoothly. Then when trouble comes we doubt God’s love.

You might think you would never be guilty of such faulty reasoning. Well, if so, you are better than the disciples we read about in the gospels! Consider when the disciples were crossing the Sea of Gallilee with Jesus. A great storm arose and they thought they were all going to drown in a shipwreck. They had to wake Jesus up from a nap, and do you know what they said?

Mark 4:38 ESV

But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”

Notice how they had already come to the conclusion that they were going to die. They seem to have come to terms with that reality somewhat. What troubled them now was Jesus’ seeming indifference to their plight. This led them to accuse Jesus with these words, “Do you not care?”

To reassure our hearts of God’s great love we do not look at our own actions and we do not look at our circumstances. To reassure our hearts of God’s love we must look to Jesus!

What is the evidence of Jesus’ love?

He came to earth as one of us, fully identifying with our humanity.

He lived a sinless life - which all of us sense we should have, but none of us could have done.

He died the death we all deserved.

He rose again from the dead to give us eternal life.

He has given us his word and his Spirit to lead and guide us.

In moments of doubt and despair, looking to your efforts or considering your circumstances will only lead you deeper into darkness. Instead, consider the above five facts about what Jesus has done for you! As you do, you will grow ever more confident of his love for you, a love that never changes, never fails, and never ends.

How do we respond to this love?

Listen

“Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable.” - David Augsburger

When someone shows us the magnitude of love that Jesus has, we owe that person a listening ear.

Our key verse is Matthew 22:34-40 where Jesus responds to a question about the most important commandment. For his answer Jesus quotes some words from Deuteronomy 6. Let’s look at them in the NLT.

Deuteronomy 6:4–5 NLT

“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

These verses are known to observant Jews as the Shema. These are among the first words of Scripture they would be taught as children. They would then grow up reciting this passage twice a day, every day, for the rest of their lives. Needless to say, they would be very familiar with these words.

Did you notice what the very first word is in this well worn passage? It is listen. The very first way we express our love for God, or anyone else for that matter, is to listen to him.

Learn

When you love someone, you want to learn all about them. This is the way it has always been between true lovers. As soon as we met, 22 years ago, Jessica wanted to learn everything there is to know about me! Of course, I have been an avid student of all things Jessica since that fateful fall day in 1998.

When we awaken to God’s great love for us, we want to learn everything we can about him. Perhaps this is why the next words of the shema refer to teaching our children.

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 ESV

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Teach them diligently. Of course, where there is no learning, there is no real teaching.

Invest time

When we love someone, we happily invest time in our realtionship with them. A relationship is quite simply time spent together. Stop spending time together and any relationship will suffer.

This is also reflected in the shema. Verse 7 indicates we should be taking time both at home and at work, waking and even sleeping to grow our relationship with God.

Consider this - Do you look forward to time spent in the presence of the Lord? We all live through seasons where our desire for Him is sometimes stronger and other times weaker. What do we do when our desire for him grows weak?

A common mistake is to resort to a sense of duty. To gather for worship, or rise for devotions, out of nothing but a sense of duty. This is better than abandoning the Lord, but less than his ideal for us.

Realize that duty is only necessary when love has grown cold. Rather than doubling down on your sense of responsibility and resolve to engage in spiritual disciplines with renewed vigor, turn the eyes of your heart to Jesus and consider how great is his love towards you! Do this and see how duty slowly but surely transforms itself into delight.

Obey

The Shema is prefaced with repeated reminders to obey the words of this command. Verse 1 - “That you may do them.” Verse 2 - “Keeping all his commands and statutes.” Verse 3 - “Be careful to do them”

Consider also these simple words of Jesus -

John 14:15 ESV

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Remember, our obedience does not cause God to loves us. But God’s love for us makes us want to obey him!

Closing

Parents, consider how much you love your child, in spite of any of his or her faults, and in spite of yours.

Now, consider how much easier it might be for you to love a perfect child. Further, imagine what the love could be like between a perfect parent and a perfect child.

We can stop imagining. This love exists! God, the perfect father has a perfect Son, and he loves the Son!

Now, what if our perfect heavenly Father loved you with that same love?

John 15:9 ESV

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.