Actually, I decided this a long time ago, but I thought it might be fun or worthwhile to explain to all my Christian friends, exactly what that means. I did some research to determine as closely as possible what Jesus really wants from his followers. This might seem like an easy task to some, but it is much more complex than one might think.
Spoken or written language provides many keys to this question. As you can see below the bible has been through many translations up to our current English version. The short list below shows it best.
Jesus’ likely spoken language → Aramaic/Hebrew
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New Testament → Greek
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Latin translations → Deus
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English translations → Multiple denominations of Christianity, predominately Catholic
With a little more research one discovers that the word GOD has many different possible origins. The one I think is most interesting is DEITY. This word has a rich history of ideas associated with it. Zeus was considered a deity in ancient mythology along with his entire gang. So, God’s first demand of us was, Honor or love him/her/it with all your heart and soul. The word “it” might offend some, but it simply clarifies the idea that we do not know if God is sexual or not. It is presumptuous to assume he is any particular sex. To continue, I do not believe that GOD is an entity living in a perfect place, up above the earth and if we follow all his rules we will end up there in some kind of paradise where all our needs and desires are fulfilled. When I die, my body will reenter the environment in the form of the essence of which it was composed. If you choose to believe, your spirit will now occupy some mystical place in the cosmos, there is nothing wrong with that. But to believe you enter some magical paradise where you continue to live your life in some perfect environment is a scenario created to help keep order while humans inhabit planet earth. Even more fanciful is the idea that you will be sent to some horrible place for not behaving properly towards your fellow humans and environment. Based on the behavior of many of the humans who occupy our planet, part of me likes the idea that they are going to some bad place, but I believe these people already live in their own hell right here on earth.
So now I need to explain what I think Jesus meant by love your GOD with your whole heart and soul. I personally believe that the word GOD represents everything, the people, the earth, the stars and the universe. Jesus was telling us to love life! Just consider this idea, if we behaved as Jesus wanted us to, the world would be a paradise! His second request of us was love thy neighbor! Take a moment to think about a world where we love and cherish our neighbor! Biblical statements like ” love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you.” or “Do to others what you would have them do to you” or, he presents caring for “the least of these” as something done directly to him, or care for the poor, vulnerable and excluded is what makes Christianity, of most other religions important to our survival. These along with others are simple guidelines for how we should behave!
I believe that society as we know it has survived this long with the help of religion but imagine for a moment a world where all Jesus’s ideas are sacred to all of us! This life we live is not about scoring enough points to get a ticket into heaven but about treating our fellow man with respect and dignity. It’s also about treating our physical world with love and compassion!
Our world has become a complex place to live. There is no shortage of problems we face as humans. We hold the key to our future. Jesus told us what was important and yes, we hanged him on a cross for trying to teach us to live in peace…just like we would do today. Many of us live in the annals of biblical scripture where interpretation is a wild and scary place. People who have studied both testaments of the bible will tell you that it was used by many as a tool to control others. The best example of this is the change in the descriptions of hell. Hell has always been a bad place but if one follows the development of hell as a concept, you will see it has become somewhat like a Marvel character setting over the last couple of centuries.
Let me sum this up, God is everything! Jesus was a man who tried to teach us to live in peace and love thy neighbor. This means that God has no favorites, he loves all men regardless of their heritage or color. The world would be a better place if religion was not perceived as a ticket to everlasting happiness. Enjoy your day and make someone happy!
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