Order Matters - Sisters

My sister recently hung up on me. This is a familiar and worn out response by her. Her reaction to me is determined by my agreement with her. I often find my sister to be double-minded.

This would seem to be proven by the fact that when I do agree with her, she tells me I should go into counseling. When I disagree, suddenly I'm self-righteous.

Our latest disagreement came when I mistakenly interjected what I thought was plain biblical truth. Did it come off as judgmental? I honestly don't know. I wasn't feeling any such way when I made the comment, and I have asked God to search my heart. Was I just speaking truth, was I being prideful, or was it a bittersweet combination of both?

I'll be honest, He showed me it was both. My sister is a trigger, and sometimes I forget that, and my pride rears it's ugly head. And it is always ugly when pride gets involved. But I stand by the truth that I spoke:

My sister: I love my country and I love my God.

Me: You mean, you love your God, and then you love your country. Right?

And I was hit with a vicious verbal assault. Paraphrasing, and using none of the coarse language that spewed from her mouth, my sister by birth and my sister in Christ, informed me that I was just a self-righteous no-it-all who thinks I know the will of God better than she does. I should know her heart better . Of course she puts God first, the order of words do not matter. Who did I think I was to try to teach her anything?

I thank God, I didn't remind her of the truth in Luke 6:45!

It is my hope and prayer that as you're reading this exchange, you can see the wrongness of my sister's thinking. Not because you are in agreement with me, but because you are in agreement with God. To say that order does not matter is, in essence, saying that God's word does not matter. He sets the order we're to follow.

From the Sermon on the Mount, "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 first and greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:37-39.

Let's take a moment to parse this out. Jesus, the one we're to follow, the one we're to imitate, lists the things that we're to love; First, always first, is God. Next is our neighbor. Okay, the list ends here. That's God order, and those are commandments.

All other things in this world that hold our passions, regardless of how deeply we feel about them, are still just things of this world. Our country, worldly. Our politics, worldly. Our bank accounts, worldly. Our homes, our cars, our possessions, worldly. To an even greatest extent, our efforts to morally conform the world through policies and laws, worldly. To those who may be offended, well I suppose that can't be helped. Because Jesus follows by saying, "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:40.

That's Jesus's way of saying the law won't save us. It can't save us. It won't and can't save them, those neighbors who offend us in their sin. Only Jesus can save us. He stands alone, so our love for Him should stand alone.

In Matthew 6:24, Jesus continues the Sermon on the Mount by saying "“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

As I've been accused of being a know-it-all, I'm going to just assume you understand that Jesus is not just talking about money in this verse. He's talking about anything that takes away our focus from Him, so the takeaway is...No one can serve two masters!

Which brings me to a second wrongness in my sister's thinking, and likely in others, and the wrongness in my response to her. It's never I love God and. Unless of course, it's I love God and I love my neighbors. Outside of that, it should always just be...I love God.