There was some encouraging news for many of us church-going folk last Friday. The president announced that all places of worship including churches, mosques, and synagogues were to be declared “essential.”
I’m not writing this as a comment on politics or giving my opinion on this action, but Trump said something in his brief remarks last week that really struck me: “Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but not churches.” What does it say about our society when we deem liquor and abortion as essential?
This really got me thinking, what is essential?
I often try to approach issues and questions like this from two points of view: A practical/worldly view and the other a spiritual/biblical view. Practically speaking, the primary essentials that come to mind are water, food, and shelter. Spiritually, the essentials that come to mind are prayer, reading/learning Scripture, and community.
Christ Jesus was given a question that I believe is similar to this issue, and His response is a perfect teaching of what is essential.
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 greatest 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 greatest 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.”
-Matthew 22:34-40
I don’t think I need to comment too much on Jesus’ response to the question for He says what He means quite clearly. I believe it should be noted though that His response does not include things you need, but things you need to DO.
What is essential? To love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Secondly, to love your neighbor as yourself.
Grace and Peace
-Normative Nomad
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