Keeping Faith Simple: Love God and Love Your Neighbor

Devotional

Day 1: When 613 Rules Become Two Love-Commands

The Torah’s 613 rules overwhelmed generations until Jesus distilled them to radical simplicity. A seeker once challenged Rabbi Hillel to explain Torah while standing on one foot, receiving the reply: “What’s hateful to you, don’t do to others.” Jesus deepened this, making love the lens for all commandments. His two-fold call—love God wholly, love neighbors as yourself—cuts through religious clutter. This simplicity disarms those seeking control through rule-making, inviting instead a life oriented by love’s compass. [39:58]

“And he said to him, ‘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.’”
(Matthew 22:37-39, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you seen faith made unnecessarily complex? How might embracing Jesus’ two love-commands reframe your decisions this week?

Day 2: Orange Shirts and the Sin of Added Rules

Residential schools weaponized cultural preferences as divine law—banning indigenous languages, long hair, and orange shirts. These rules had no biblical basis, yet were enforced as Christian. Such additions betray Jesus’ simplicity, prioritizing empire over love. When human traditions masquerade as God’s will, they alienate the vulnerable. True faith rejects using the Bible to control others, instead asking: does this practice honor love of God and neighbor? [43:07]

“You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. And he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!’”
(Mark 7:8-9, ESV)

Reflection: What modern “rules” in your community might confuse culture with Christ’s call? How can you challenge these while honoring those harmed by them?

Day 3: Hoopoes, Haircuts, and Holy Priorities

The Torah’s prohibition against eating hoopoe birds (Leviticus 11:16) seems odd today, much like residential schools’ bans on indigenous hairstyles. Not all biblical instructions carry equal weight. Jesus prioritized justice and mercy over ritual purity (Matthew 23:23). When lesser rules overshadow love, we complexify faith. Communion’s simplicity—bread, cup, remembrance—models how sacraments recenter us on essentials. [36:50]

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
(Micah 6:8, ESV)

Reflection: What well-intentioned “hoopoe rules” might you be clinging to? How could practicing justice and kindness simplify your spiritual focus?

Day 4: Communion as Anti-Empire Resistance

World Communion Sunday unites global believers through bread and cup—a subversive act against cultural Christianity. While empires complexify faith to control, Jesus’ table flattens hierarchies. Sharing this meal amid Truth and Reconciliation season becomes repentance: rejecting colonial additions to the gospel. Here, orange shirts and hoopoe debates fade before Christ’s broken body, given for all. [50:11]

“The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
(1 Corinthians 10:16-17, ESV)

Reflection: How does communion challenge your assumptions about who belongs? What divisions might Jesus’ table call you to dismantle?

Day 5: Love’s Grammar Over Rulebooks

Christianity’s essence isn’t a list but a language—the grammar of love shaping how we “speak” God’s heart. Rules answer “What’s permitted?” Love asks “What’s healing?” Residential schools forgot this, prioritizing assimilation over Christ-like love. Jesus’ two commands form a living syntax, adapting to new contexts without losing coherence. To love this way requires unlearning false additions and returning daily to the source. [46:31]

“Let all that you do be done in love.”
(1 Corinthians 16:14, ESV)

Reflection: Where do you need to stop consulting rulebooks and start speaking love’s language? Who might need you to translate God’s heart into actions they can understand?

Sermon Summary

The Ten Commandments often enter Christian memory as the basics of morality: follow these rules, be a good Christian, be a good person. The Torah, however, contains not ten rules but 613, including rules that can strike modern readers as pretty weird, such as “don’t eat hoopoes.” The sheer number of commands gives good reason not to get bogged down in every detail while missing the center.

Jesus Christ boils even the Ten Commandments down to two: love God with all the heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love the neighbor as oneself. Rabbi Hillel offers a similar simple line: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the entire Torah. And the rest is its interpretation.” Religious people regularly need to simplify faith because religious people so often complexify it.

Christianity has repeatedly piled customs and rules onto the gospel. The Protestant Reformers pared down the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, yet Protestant Christians soon taught converts plenty of things that were not found in Scripture. Complexified Christianity arrived with European control in North America and made Euro-Canadian customs look like Christian obedience.

Residential schools show the terrible fruit of confusing the wisdom of empire with the wisdom of God. Indigenous children were punished for long hair, for speaking their own languages, and for wearing their own clothes, even though Jesus did not speak English or French and likely would have been confused by rules against an orange shirt. The leap from “love God and love people” to “assimilate into Anglo-Canadian culture” requires several leaps of logic.

Biblical wisdom still requires interpretation for hard questions about relationships, jobs, trade wars, artificial intelligence, and everyday life. The Ten Commandments and the great commandments do not hand out clear-cut answers to every twenty-first-century problem. The simple way of Jesus, though, keeps Christian life moving in the direction God wants.

Holy baptism and holy communion embody that simple center. Baptism marks washing, rebirth, and entry into God’s family. Communion remembers Jesus in food and drink, joining Christians around the globe on World Communion Sunday. Communion also becomes a ritual of repentance near the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, turning from complexified Christianity and back toward loving God fully and loving neighbors as oneself.

##

Key Takeaways

1. Simplicity guards the center of faith. Jesus does not throw away the moral life, but Jesus names its center in love for God and neighbor. Rules can serve that center, yet rules become dangerous when they become the center. Christian maturity requires more than collecting commands; it requires recognizing what every command is meant to protect. [40:15]
2. Empire can disguise itself as Christianity. Residential schools made European hair, language, and clothing into tests of Christian obedience. That move did not come from the simple commands to love God and love people; it came from the wisdom of empire. Repentance names those distortions plainly and refuses to call assimilation holy. [45:43]
3. Complex questions still need biblical wisdom. Scripture does not offer a quick answer for every modern decision, from a job change to artificial intelligence. Faithful interpretation takes the whole Bible seriously without pretending that a verse can settle every issue instantly. The great commandments remain a compass when no simple map is available. [44:24]
4. Communion remembers Jesus through shared food. Holy communion is not merely a routine religious activity. Christ gives bread and cup as an embodied way to remember his life and teachings whenever people eat and drink together. World Communion Sunday makes that shared remembrance visible across cultures, nations, and languages. [48:44]
5. Repentance turns toward Jesus’ simple way. Repentance involves more than feeling sorry for historical wrongs. Repentance turns away from faith distorted by domination and returns to loving God with the whole self and loving neighbors as oneself. Communion can hold that turning in the body as well as in the mind.

## [49:55]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[34:24] - Learning the Ten Commandments
[35:21] - The Torah’s 613 Rules
[36:50] - Don’t Eat Hoopoes
[38:23] - Jesus Boils It Down to Two
[39:43] - Rabbi Hillel’s Simple Rule
[40:29] - Why Religion Gets Complexified
[41:31] - Christianity and Residential Schools
[43:42] - Empire’s Wisdom Versus God’s Wisdom
[44:24] - Applying Scripture to Modern Questions
[46:31] - Keeping Faith Simple
[47:23] - Baptism and Holy Communion
[49:55] - Communion as Repentance

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading

Matthew 22:37-40
“And he said to him, '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.”

Observation questions

In Matthew 22:37–40, which two loves does Jesus name as the center of the law?
What contrast is made between the Ten Commandments and the much larger number of commands found in the Torah? [35:21]
What examples show how residential schools treated European hairstyles, languages, and clothing as though they were Christian requirements? [41:44]
What two sacraments are identified, and what is each one meant to help Christians remember or embody? [47:23]

Interpretation questions

Why might Jesus place love for God and love for neighbour at the center of all the commandments, rather than simply adding one more rule to the list?
How can rules and traditions serve love for God and neighbour, and when can they begin to replace that love?
Why is it important to distinguish between God’s wisdom and the values of a culture, nation, or empire when Christians make moral decisions? [45:43]
If the great commandments do not give instant answers to every question about work, relationships, or technology, how can they still guide a faithful decision? [44:42]

Application questions

What is one church custom, family expectation, or personal religious habit that helps a person love God and neighbour? Is there one that may need to be held more lightly?
When facing a difficult decision, what would it look like to ask, “How does this help me love God with my whole self and love my neighbour as myself?” [46:31]
Where might people today confuse being a “good Christian” with fitting into a particular culture, political viewpoint, class, language, or style of life?
The history of residential schools calls Christians to repentance for faith distorted by domination. What can honest repentance look like beyond simply feeling sorry—both personally and as a church community? [49:55]
Communion joins Christians across cultures, nations, and languages around Jesus. How might receiving communion shape the way a person treats Christians and neighbours whose backgrounds differ from their own? [48:44]
What simple practice could help keep the two great commandments close this week—for example, memorizing them, praying through them, or choosing one concrete act of neighbour-love?

Sermon Clips

52s

#SimpleFaith

“We are much more faithful to the way of Jesus when we keep it simple. Memorizing the 10 commandments, or at least Jesus' two great commandments, are a great way to keep our Christian faith simple. Like I said, they will not answer our complex questions coming from our twenty first century North American culture. But when we keep our faith simple, we at least will know that we are going in the direction that God wants us to go in our lives.”

48s

#CommunionAndReconciliation

“Also, because World Communion Sunday often occurs close to our Canadian National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we can practice Holy Communion as a ritual of repentance as well. We turn away from the complexified Christianity that led to the Indian residential school system, and we turned toward simple way of Jesus. Simply loving God with all of ourselves, and loving our neighbors like we love ourselves.”

72s

#ResidentialSchoolTruth

“And certainly, by the time that Christian Europeans had gained control over the lands that we now call North America, and especially Canada, new converts to Christianity were taught a lot of European based customs that were certainly not among the 10 commandments. This complexified Christianity was what indigenous children were taught in Canadian residential schools. You know, as soon as indigenous children came to residential schools, they quickly learned that boys were supposed to wear their hair cut short. Not long, as was and still is the tradition of many indigenous nations. And that was despite, like, almost every painting I've seen of Jesus whose hair is at least shoulder length.”

Ask a question about this sermon

Streetsville United Church This sermon · AI assistant

Why do Christians repeatedly complexify their faith?

How can simple commandments guide complex modern decisions?

How can Holy Communion become a ritual of repentance?