The Greatest Commandment
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 commandment in the law is the greatest?” 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 greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Lord, how often we put you to the test
Not because you haven’t been clear
but because we’re stalling
Your command is simple
- It’s application anything but.
So we play for time
We ask questions
We debate
We look for nuance
And you sit with us
in our struggle
in our avoidance
your drumming fingers
the only sign of your impatience
You sit with us
as we look for loopholes
or exemptions
or any other way out
of obedience.
You sit with us
until we catch your eye
and, seeing there only love,
we fall silent
And in that silence
when we have exhausted argument
and run out of excuses
In that silence
remains one thing
A command
Not an option
In that silence
we find
Love
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