I agree with this approach - both theologically and based on my own experience.Josh wrote:The greatest command is love. We are commanded to love the Lord our God and to love our neighbour as ourself. On this hang the law and the prophets. This command predated Jesus' birth, but he did show us what true love actually looks like.
By "tempting" I mean my initial goal of being a Christian was to sin less: be nicer to people, keep more promises, and generally be a "good person".
God had something else in mind for me. He wanted me to learn his two greatest commands. That's the whole point of all of this.
If I keep my eyes on my own sin and temptations, what I see is my own sin and temptations, which are death. Repentance involves laying down my life, picking up my cross, and following Jesus. That means laying down my sin, of course, but also following Jesus.
And how do you measure following Jesus? Not just in abstaining from obvious sin, but in actively obeying the greatest commandments.
How am I expressing my whole-hearted love for God in worship and prayer? What am I doing to really love those closest to me, my family and my brethren? How am I serving the brethren and my neighbors?Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Another bicycle analogy: If you try to stay in one place on a bicycle without falling down, you will fall down eventually. That's often the approach we take toward sin - we try to stay in one place spiritually and not fall into sin, guilty about the times we have fallen, worried about falling again, afraid to ask forgiveness after falling yet one more time. But a bicycle was never designed to stay in one place. If you ride the bicycle forward in the right direction, the momentum keeps you upright, you develop a sense of balance, and while you may have occasional wobbles from time to time, and perhaps a fall much more rarely, you are stable and moving in the right direction.
Loving God and neighbor is the way to get the bicycle moving. As long as the focus is on me and my sin and my guilt and worries, the bicycle just keeps falling down.