Summary: Explores how reciting, reflecting upon, and living the Greatest Command can transform the lives of disciples.

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,
Love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind and with all your strength."
The second is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
There is no commandment greater than these.

Scot McKnight proposes that this response by Jesus to a teacher of the law regarding what was the greatest commandment was not merely a response of Jesus, but reflected the creed Jesus recited. Certainly the first part, drawn from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), was a creed every devout Jew recited and professed. Jesus response did something revolutionary. He added Leviticus 19:18 concerning love of neighbor. Jesus sums up the spiritual life, and all the teaching of the law as love of God and neighbor.

McKnight, who came from a non-credal background, made this a personal creed, reciting it morning and evening. In this work, McKnight offers a series of reflections on a life lived around the Jesus Creed, a life lived around loving God and others. After encouraging the use of this creed in prayer, McKnight explores the God we are to love and the powerful truth that we address Abba, the Father who first loves us, even when we were prodigals. The table he invites us to is an open table, a place where a new society is created. This sacred love, exemplified by John Woolman, manifests in transformed worship and transformed relationships.

In the second of four parts, McKnight leads us in reflecting on stories of people in the New Testament transformed by their embrace of Jesus and his creed: John the Baptist, Joseph, Mary, Peter, John, and the women around Jesus. I was particularly taken by his treatment of Joseph as a righteous man, who in taking Mary as his wife when she was pregnant with Jesus, lost his righteous reputation with a woman perceived as adulterous, and with an illegitimate child. McKnight observes that in his decision to love God and Mary and the baby, he loses his reputation and gains an identity as the husband of Mary and the Father of Jesus.

The third part explores a vision of the society of the Jesus Creed, It is a society that transforms life in the now. It is a mustard seed society in which small beginnings have far-reaching results. It is a society for justice, one devoted to setting things to rights. It is a society of restoration, that tears down walls of protection to spread the infectious purity of Jesus. It is a society of joy, where yearnings met by glimpses of joy become the full-blown joy of feasting with God and each other. It is a society of perspective, where we discover that "the end is the beginning," where our communion now with God in scripture and in prayer in Christian community is shaped by what we expect to be our eternal destiny.

Finally, McKnight considers what it means for us to live the Jesus Creed. He summarizes this as:

*Believing in Jesus
*Abiding in Jesus
*Surrendering in Jesus
*Restoring in Jesus
*Forgiving in Jesus
*Reaching Out in Jesus

All of these were challenging chapters, and certainly the challenge to forgive is one many of us wrestle with. Another, that I do not hear much of these days, is that of surrender. McKnight speaks of surrendering both mind and body and gets very specific about each. Here is part of what he says about physical surrender:

A disciple of Jesus recognizes the significance of what is physical. As Dallas Willard makes clear in several of his books, "the body lies right at the center of the spiritual life." The challenge for spiritual formation is for our bodies to love God and others so that they "honor God." While some people need to discipline the body more than others, the extravagances of some forms of monasticism, however well intended, express a fundamental misconception of the proper place of the body in spiritual formation. Having said that, however, the disciplines of the Christian life are "body acts of love" and cannot be set aside if we are being spiritually formed. In fact, the body cries for the opportunity to surrender itself to the Jesus Creed (p. 207).

No gnosticism here. McKnight explores how our bodily love for God and others works out in everything from our use of power to our quest for agelessness to our acceptance of the gift of our sexuality, while guarding from the misuse of this gift.

McKnight's book is so valuable in calling us back to the heart of following Jesus. When asked about what we believe, at best we often stumble to offer theological, explanations, or at our worst, declare all the things we are against. McKnight invites us to reflect, and by saying this creed morning and evening, to center our lives on what Jesus thought most important. I suspect that we often get distracted from loving God and neighbor because it is simply hard. On the one hand, this is uncompromisingly simple--love God with all you are, and when you find a neighbor--love that person as you would be loved. On the other hand, it is hard, and that, I think is why we turn to other things. It is scary to give ourselves wholeheartedly to God. And we worry what will become of us if we give ourselves wholeheartedly to the neighbor. But does this not take us into the place of surrender, of trusting the love of Abba-Father, as we day by day pray the Jesus Creed? ( )

Within the Christian faith, there are a slew of creeds that exist. Perhaps the most famous of all are the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. But, little do we know that Jesus himself established His own creed. This creed is known as the Jesus Creed.

But, before explaining the Jesus Creed, there is a bit of background information that must be addressed first. Before Christ was born, Jews all throughout the known world had their own creed. This creed is better known as the Shema (Sh'ma) and is still professed by millions of Jews today. The Shema is taken from a passage in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 which reads:

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."

This is the shortened version of the Shema and the one most often cited by Jews. Daily, when awakening and retiring for the night, observant Jews recited this creed aloud. Every Jew knew this sacred creed and repeated it quite often. It was also the greatest commandment and was to be followed very obediently with no other exceptions. Anyone who did not follow or recite this creed was known as an "Am ha-aretz", loosely defined as a country bumpkin with no education.

Now, fast forward many years later to the days of Jesus' ministry when He was asked what is the greatest commandment of all:

"And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the most important of all?" Jesus answered, "The most important is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these.'" (Mark 12:28-31)

The Scribes were expecting only one response. Note the singularity of the question in verse 28? But, Jesus responds not only with the Shema, but adds something additional to this historic creed. Jesus amends the Shema with, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." In other words, Jesus personalizes the Shema from a Love-God only Shema to a Love-God-and-Love-Others Shema. And, we all know Jesus certainly demonstrated this in His love for other people.

But, the story doesn't end there...

Jesus is once again put to the test with yet another trick question regarding this new creed. What precisely does Jesus mean by "neighbor" in this equation? If a person is not my neighbor, am I still obligated to love him?

"But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise." (Luke 10:29-37)

So, the bottom line is this. We are to love God and love others. This is the Jesus Creed. Our neighbors, are anyone with whom God places onto our path. It's easy to claim we love God. Anyone can make this claim. But, it's a bit more challenging to truly love people; ALL people no matter their background; even if they may not love us back. This applies to those that are hard to love or whom we may deem our "enemy". America certainly has it's enemies, but as Christians, are these too our enemies? Loving others is an outflowing of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us. It will also likely be a reason many people may ask us, why do you love me? Why do you care?

Francis Schaeffer, in his book, "The Mark of a Christian" summarizes this love of neighbor very succinctly. He writes:

"Love, and the unity it attests to, is the mark Christ gave Christians to wear before the world. Only with this mark may the world know that Christians are indeed Christians and that Jesus was sent by the Father." (page 59) ( )

"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength". The second is this: "Love your neighbour as yourself." There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:29-31.
The author speaks about how the above "Jesus Creed" should shape everything about Christian Spirituality.

This book is the answer to a question: What would the Christian life look like if everyone loved God with their entire being, and loved their neighbours also? The answer is attractive. In The Jesus Creed, McKnight paints a picture of the sort of kingdom-charged life we all can live.

The structure works quite well: there are 30 short meditations that challenge you to examine your life in light of the creed Jesus and his followers lived by. If you're looking for some devotional reading, this will offer a solid month of character formation. McKnight includes many anecdotes and illustrations that enliven the points he's making.

I only had one problem with this book: it felt a little scattered at times. All 30 chapters were good, and the points were important—I just didn't always see how the chapters fit together with each other.

This is a book from a scholar in the form of a popular devotional. There's depth beneath the easy-reading style. If you're reading for information, you'll probably be dissapointed. There are other books for information. If you want to seriously consider how we as Christians should be living, this will search the heart. ( )

http://www.somestrangeideas.com/wordpress/2006/04/01/jesus-creed/ ( )