III. A Commitment to the Great Commandments. We call upon all Southern Baptists to recommit to the priority of the Great Commandments in every aspect of our lives and every priority we embrace as a network of local Baptist churches. (Matt. 22:37-40)
Every Christian is called first and foremost to love God and secondly to love others. Greater love for God will always lead to greater love for people created in His image. The Great Commission flows from the Great Commandments.
We believe too many of us have lost some of our love for God and others somewhere along the way. This has devastated our witness. If we love Jesus as we should, we will love sinners as we ought and pursue them as He did. Though we believe that God calls believers to speak out against moral ills, this must not be done in a way that is hateful toward unbelievers or trades gospel priorities for political influence. We must not condemn those who are already under the just wrath of God, but must seek to serve them and proclaim Christ to them with the hope that God will save them.
Loving God and loving others means our churches must become more diverse. Southern Baptists were born, in part, out of a racist context and for over a century embraced systemic racism. For far too much of our history we failed to love our neighbors as ourselves, and that will forever be to our shame. By God’s grace and the Spirit’s conviction, we publically repented of this in 1995 on our 150th anniversary, but there is still much work to be done. Until our churches better reflect the diversity we look forward to in heaven, we must labor at gospel-centered racial reconciliation.
Furthermore, loving God and loving others means each of us must be watchful in our relationships with others in our churches and our Convention. We must accept our constant need to humble ourselves and repent of pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, contentions, lying, selfish ambitions, laziness, complacency, idolatries and every other sin of the flesh that leads to broken relationships and harms our witness before the watching world.
As with the previous two axioms, though everything said is important, a few statements catch my attention to a greater degree.
First, "The Great Commission flows from the Great Commandments." What a remarkable and true statement. If one does not love God and does not love people, he or she will definitely not seek to fulfill the Great Commission. On the most obvious level, if one does not love people, they will be indiferent as to whether or not people around the world are saved from the wrath of God in hell. In addition, however, is the reality that if love for God is not there, then there will be careless spirit as to whether or not God is glorified among the nations. One who has a passionate love for God is one who longs for Him to get the glory He deserves from all the peoples of the world. Thus, the primary basis for missions is the glory of God. He is worthy to be praised. He will be exalted on the earth. He will not give His glory to another. A heart in love with that 'glory-seeking' God will pursue Him being glorified through others responding to the message of His grace in the Gospel.
Second, "Loving God and loving others means our churches must be more diverse." This is a very bold and challenging statement, but a real and true one nonetheless. Obeying the Great Commandment means to love all people and love the God who made all the people. We are never called to love those who are just like us. We are called to love all. We will be worshipping in heaven, not with just Southern Baptists...not even just white Southern Baptists. But from people from every language, tribe, and tongue (Revelation 5).
Thus, some questions to ponder:
- Do I truly have a love for the Lord God, or do I love the idea of being known as one who loves God?
- Is my love for people evident?
- How has my knowing of Christ's Great Commission changed my view towards people of other nationalities and races?
- What kind of people go to my church? Is their diversity, or is a bunch of "birds of the same feather flocking together"?
- Do I care if God is glorified in other continents? If so, what am I doing about it? If not, why not?
- What does loving God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength look like for me?
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