But Christ Be All the World to Me, and All My Heart Be Love

By Gerald Coates

Jesus was asked by an expert in the Law, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40 ESV).

This declaration by Jesus puts the moral reasoning in place for all of the commandments. It is ultimate love for God that works itself out into every relationship. The first of the Ten Commandments is “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Love for God guards our hearts against idolatry in all its forms.

American Idols

Years ago, when we were looking for a home on the east side of Indianapolis, we were a bit surprised as we walked into a potential home to see that what would normally have been used as the dining room had been transformed into a family Hindu worship center. There were several idols, a place to burn incense, etc. I wasn’t offended, but curious.

As I thought more about idolatry, I read this line from Dallas Willard in The Great Omission, “Idolatry is marked by the will to use God for our purposes.” That is in essence the idolatry of too much of American Christianity. It is using Jesus to get to heaven, using God to bless my life, centering the Holy Spirit on my needs rather than on the glory of Jesus. It is the classic definition of sin by both Augustine and Luther: incurvatus in se, “curved in upon itself.”

Today, I am naming another idol in the United States. Generally speaking (I’m owning that this is a generalization), Christians in the United States hold their political allegiance to the level of idolatry. The simple fact of emotional reaction to this statement is in itself a low-level proof. Far too often, we view one another not first as a brother or sister in Christ. We too often tend to view one another from a political stance, even to the point of evaluating the authenticity of faith.

Our hope is built on Jesus, not on government, not on political party, not on policy. I own that I have been deeply impacted by our global church who often live out their faith in the midst of oppression and outright persecution. I am thankful for freedom of speech, for our Bill of Rights, for the freedom to engage in government, but these are not essential to faith.

Think about the beginnings of the church under Roman oppression and its long walk through the dark ages. Think about 18th century England before the revival during John and Charles Wesley’s day.

What we have seen over the past 25 or 30 years is a deepening divide among believers, not over doctrine, but over politics. When any loyalty rises above allegiance to Jesus, it is idolatry. When our heart is motivated by anything less than love for God and neighbor, it is at its base level, a form of idolatry.

It is not that issues are not important, or that we should not seek justice, but our idolatry is divorcing our call for justice from the humility and mercy to which God calls us (see Micah 6:8).

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 “God is always calling me to deepened dependency on Him.”

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Our Ultimate Allegiance

I am walking this journey with you and trying to find the right ways to speak the truth in love — all the while recognizing I have not arrived. I am still in process, still growing, still in need of encouragement and correction. But at the heart of it all, I want to be guided by love for God and love for neighbor. I want my ultimate allegiance to be to Jesus.

In Joshua 24, Joshua exhorts the people to throw away their idols and follow wholeheartedly after the Lord. It occurs to me that some of those idols may have been carried around for 40 years and passed down from parents to their surviving children. In a great moment of surrender, the people promise to serve the Lord. How sad that within one generation, idolatry is back into the normal flow of life of the resettled Israelites. In Judges 2, we are told how the Israelites served the Baals. We are always just one generation away from outright idolatry.

I hope my children know me for my love of Jesus and love of people more than for my political leanings. What I have wanted to pass to them is vibrant faith, not political passion. I find myself in need of a constant flow of repentance. My heart and mind are bent toward self-reliance and self-sufficiency. God is always calling me to deepened dependency on Him. May the Lord help us all as we seek His kingdom and His righteousness.

“But Christ be all the world to me, and all my heart be love.” (This is the last line of Charles Wesley’s hymn, “My God! I Know, I Feel Thee Mine.”)

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