How Would Jesus Vote? || The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:36-40
Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘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 the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
YOU
Luke 9:23
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
Matthew 19:28-30
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
The world = prioritize your rights
Jesus = prioritize others needs
…And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
The way you love your invisible father with everything, is to love your visible neighbor with everything.
Using every means of grace God has given me to lovingly meet my neighbors needs is how I show to God and the onlooking world , that I love Him with everything.
How do I vote in a way that will bring about God’s best for my neighbor?
What “neighbors” does Jesus seem to put special emphasis on?
Poor/Oppressed
Proverbs 31:8-9
Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. 9 Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Psalm 140:12
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
Psalm 72:4
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the children of the needy, and crush the oppressor!
Orphan/Widow
Deuteronomy 10:17-18
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
James 1:27
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
Sojourner/Immigrant
Deuteronomy 10:18
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Matthew 25:35
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
1 John 3:16
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.