May 12, 2019: The Difficulty of Simplicity – Paula Williams

Jesus was asked about the most important commands and he responded with two: love God and love others. “All Scripture hangs on these two things,” he concluded. Another rabbi was asked to explain Torah while the questioner stood on one foot. The rabbi replied, “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the commentary; go and study.” Several commentators suggest that these are the old and new rules John refers to here in chapter 2. It’s really that simple, isn’t it?

Simplicity is something we’ve mostly lost today. Perhaps that is because simplicity is incredibly difficult to pull off. It takes far more understanding, knowledge, depth and vision than even the most complex of all things. This is revealed by the simple command: LOVE. Is there anything more difficult than that?