Jesus Summarizes Christian Leadership

As a leader sitting at the head of the table, have you ever had occasion to be in a long presentation? Sometimes you preside over endless details, tangents and options. Perhaps you’ve tried to bring a meeting or conversation back on track with the question, “Can you summarize it?” Leaders like summaries because they cut to the heart of a problem, issue or project, and help the leader to reach a point of decision. Details are important, but a leader is looking to the essence, the big picture, to move the organization forward.

Is there a summary for us of the Christian faith? Is there a simple statement that a leader can read that brings all of what we believe as Christ-followers into focus? Jesus Himself summarized the teachings of God in a few words. When a Pharisee asked Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 12:36), Jesus answered him…

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.”

Matthew 12:37-40

The Pharisee asking Jesus this question followed the original 613 commandments given to the Jewish people in the Old Testament. This Mosaic Law was further interpreted into legalistic detail with hundreds of additional rules religious people were expected to follow. This was impossible, of course. In Jesus’ summary, He touches on the two key elements of the Christian faith—the new covenant that He Himself was bringing. His explanation was simple, elevating these two facets among all of the details the Pharisees and Jews in general were accustomed to knowing and attempting to follow.

Love God. First, Jesus said we are to love God completely. This is a desire and obedience above all others in life. Certainly we cannot obey every law and custom of the Old Testament, hundreds of details to remember. But we can certainly ask in each decision and circumstance, what would be pleasing to God? How would God want us to act and lead, based on our knowledge of His ways and character? This kind of love is not possible if we do not have a relationship with God, and a desire to know Him. This is the bridge Jesus built for us on the cross. The Christian does not view religion as a set of rules and sub-rules to follow, but simply as a close relationship to be built. Jesus’ words further define this relationship—“with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”—complete and total devotion.

Love others. The second part of Jesus’ summary is to love others—our neighbors—as we love ourselves. This is, again, a simple command, but perhaps the more difficult of the two because our nature in life and leadership is often self-serving. Here Jesus flips that notion upside down, commanding us to be self-sacrificing. To love others as ourselves is to put others before ourselves. This command is echoed throughout the remainder of the New Testament. The Apostle Paul gives us a detailed understanding of sacrificial love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” Indeed this kind of love for others is also impossible without a relationship with God.

Look up “love” in the dictionary, and you’ll see descriptors like attraction, affection, feeling. In these commands, Jesus defines godly love as something entirely different—self-sacrificing, giving, unselfish, forbearing, enduring, unfailing. Jesus’ summary for leadership is short, simple and profound. The Pharisee asking the question likely believed he knew more about how to please God than Jesus did. But Jesus cut to the heart of the matter and gave an outwardly religious leader the big picture. Now that you have this summary, as a faith-centered leader, may you grow in your love for God and love for others. This is the core of Christian leadership.