Best Practices

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

Deuteronomy 6:5

The term best practices is used in organizational settings to refer to any activity, process, method, or behavior that is judged to be the most effective. Best practices are those methods that are most efficient, effective, and successful. Best practices are not “good ideas” or suggestions. They are proven strategies for anyone who wants the best possible outcome in a given endeavor.

Jesus Christ put into words what might be considered spiritual best practices: first, love God with everything in you—heart, soul, and mind; second, love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39). Loving God is “the first and great commandment,” or “job one” in the Christian life. No one who wants to be a fruitful Christian can ignore the priority of loving God. Loving other people is good, but since God is the source of our love for others, our love will be found wanting if we have not loved God first.

God’s priorities are given for a reason: they are proven best practices that we ignore at our spiritual peril.

Beloved, let the fact of what our Lord suffered for you grip you, and you will never again be the same.

OLIVER B. GREENE