Here is a Spiritual Conundrum submitted to Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life by a reader named Mike:

I believe in God. But I don’t really know why. How can this be reconciled? I was saved as a Christian but I feel a connection for other faiths even Hinduism and Buddhism. I see truth in many areas of religion and spirituality. What is the most important message that God has for us according to each of the major (and minor) religions of the world? Is there a common theme?

Great question, Mike!

Of course, it would be impossible to say what’s the most important message according to each and every major and minor religion of the world. There are thousands, if not millions of ’em! However, there are some common themes that run through most of the religions of the world:

Believe in, love, and honor God. Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things. Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for your neighbor instead.

Jesus summed it all up in the two Great Commandments:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

(See Matthew 22:34–40; Mark 12:28–34; Luke 10:25–37.)

What? The two lists aren’t the same? Yes they are! Let’s take a closer look.

Many religions, one God

Yes, yes, there are too many religions to count. And yes, they say all sorts of different—and even conflicting—things.

Some say there are many gods, and some say there is only one God.

Some say only people in their religion are saved, some say people of all religions are saved.

Some say you have to be good only to people of your own religion and culture, some say you have to be good to all people.

Some say they’re completely right and everyone else is completely wrong, others say there is truth in all religions.

And, quite frankly, some religions are pretty messed up!

So it’s not as though we’re going to get all the religions of the world to sit down together and say, “Yeah, we all basically agree with one another, so let’s hold hands in a big circle and sing Kum Ba Ya.”

Ain’t gonna happen.

And yet, I still believe that there is one God who is the God of all the religions. (See: “If there’s One God, Why All the Different Religions?”)

And if there truly is one God who is the Creator and God of all the universe, and therefore the God of all the religions of our earth, then it makes sense that God would have some especially important and critical messages to convey to all people, through all the religions of the world.

That is why I believe that although there are many different religions saying many different things, there are some common strands of divine truth and inspiration that run through every legitimate religion.

I say every legitimate religion because there are some truly wacked out and illegitimate cults that have more to do with glorifying and enriching some truly sick human beings and gratifying their twisted whims than they do with loving God and loving the neighbor.

It is also true that some legitimate religions, such as the philosophical strain of Buddhism that has become popular in the West, hardly even mention God, and are more focused on achieving our human spiritual potential.

So it’s a good idea not to get too absolute about saying, “All religions believe X.”

And yet, once again, because I believe there is one God who created the entire universe and everyone in it, I do believe that there are common threads that run through most, if not all, of the religions of the earth.

Let’s look at two or three of these basic themes of religion.

God is the center and focus of all genuine religion

The central theme of all genuine religion is, as Jesus said:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Or as I phrased it above:

Believe in, love, and honor God.

True, some segments of some religions such as Buddhism and Taoism don’t have a clearly defined doctrine of God that they put at the center of their religion. But even these religious belief systems involve a “path” or “way” that is seen as transcending merely human and worldly concerns. In these religions, that “path” or “way” is an abstract conception of God.

However, most religions do have an explicit conception of a divine being (or beings) central to their belief and practice. Even polytheistic religions see their gods as being greater than human beings, and as requiring belief, love, and honor from their followers. And in the major polytheistic religions, some of the more philosophical believers and teachers think of the various “gods” as being more in the nature of various attributes or ramifications of a single universal God.

Regardless of whether a particular religion thinks of God as an abstract ideal, a multiplicity of individual deities, or a single supreme God who is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists, that Divine Being or Principle will form the center and focus of the religion. Everything else in the religion revolves around it.

So the first common theme of all religions is:

A belief in, love for, and honor of God, however God is conceived

That’s what makes a religion a religion rather than a secular moral and ethical system.

Loving the neighbor is a key element of all genuine religion

Although religions aren’t mere moral and ethical systems, all religions do have a system of morals and ethics guiding their followers on how to treat their fellow human beings.

Jesus made this the second key principle of religion when he said that the second Great Commandment is:

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Realistically, if we are going to follow that commandment there are two absolute necessities, which I phrased as:

Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things.

Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for your neighbor instead.

Or as stated compactly in the book of Isaiah:

Cease to do evil,

learn to do good.

(Isaiah 1:16–17)

Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things

The first step in loving our neighbor (meaning our fellow human beings) is to not do bad things to them.

Let’s face it. We humans tend to think of ourselves first, and of other people only as they relate to our own sense of wellbeing. And that natural self-centeredness leads us to say and do many things that are hurtful to our fellow human beings. Lying, cheating, stealing, attacking, fighting, and killing—all of these and many other hurtful and deadly things we do to one another arise out of our natural focus on ourselves and our own wellbeing.

So the first thing religions of all types tell us about our behavior is that we must not do evil, selfish, and destructive things.

Yes, different religions have different rules as to exactly what we’re not supposed to do. But the ones listed in the second table of the Ten Commandments—honoring parents, not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, and not even having a burning desire to have what belongs to our neighbors—are pretty basic and universal rules in all the various religions around the world.

One common way this step is expressed in various religions is that we must repent from our evil desires, thoughts, and actions. The word “repent” simply means, “Don’t do that anymore! Don’t even think about doing it!”

As long as we’re still doing bad things to our fellow human beings, such as stealing from them, lying about them, and killing them, it’s sort of hard to do good things for them, isn’t it? One cancels out the other.

That’s why the first step in loving our neighbor as ourselves is:

Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things.

This is Religious Common Theme #2A.

Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for your neighbor instead

As we stop doing bad things to our fellow human beings, we can begin to focus on doing good things for them instead.

Every legitimate religion has a moral and ethical code that not only says what you’re not supposed to do to your fellow human beings, but also what you are supposed to do for them.

There is an even greater variety here than there is on the rules of what we’re not supposed to do. But in general, the various religions teach that we are to be honest, compassionate, merciful, and faithful in our dealings with our fellow human beings, and that we are to devote our life to serving them through engaging in good deeds and useful service in our community.

Jesus tied this commandment to love and serve our neighbor directly to the even greater commandment to love and serve God. In his teaching about the Judgment of the Nations, also known as The Sheep and the Goats (in Matthew 25:31-46), he said that as much as we have given our neighbor in need something to eat and drink, clothing, a friendly welcome and invitation, cared for them when they were sick, and visited them in prison, we have done these same things for God.

Every legitimate religion teaches that it is God’s will that we should love and serve our neighbor in compassionate, practical, and helpful ways.

That’s because the second step in loving our neighbor is:

Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for our fellow human beings.

This is Religious Common Theme #2B.

The common themes in all religion

Here, then, are the common themes that you will find running through all genuine religions if you look deeply enough:

Believe in, love, and honor God. Don’t do evil, selfish, and destructive things. Do good, loving, kind, and useful things for your neighbor instead.

Or to boil it down even further:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.

This article is a response to a spiritual conundrum submitted by a reader.

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