Better Together - The Greatest Commandment

Better Together - The Greatest Commandment

From Shelbyville Community Church by Shelbyville Community Church

March 2, 2026

About this episode

The episode uses a parable about a little girl in a swim team to illustrate relationships in the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, He would almost always use a parable. A parable is a made-up story from the real-world Jesus often used to illustrate life in the Kingdom of God. I would like to tell you a true story to illustrate relationships in the Kingdom of God. And, borrowing from Jesus’ approach to how He introduced parables, I will begin like this: The Kingdom of God is like a five-year-old little girl whose parents signed her up for swim team, and she absolutely loved it. In fact, at her pool, she was known as the friendly swimmer because she would swim with her head out of the water and grin the entire time. However, she lost every race, which was so odd because she was taller than most of the kids. She was strong and lean, but she still lost every time. And at the end of the season, her parents said, “Do you want to do that again?” She said “yes!” So season two comes along and now she's six years old and once again, same outcome. She smiled, waved, and lost every race. And then about halfway through season two, her mother was talking with her daughter about the swim meet that evening, and she looked at her daughter and she said, “Okay, honey, get out…

Topics covered

  • Kingdom of God
  • relationships
  • parables
  • swimming
  • competition
  • community

Keywords

  • Kingdom of God
  • parable
  • relationships
  • swim team
  • competition
  • community
  • story

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