Love God – Love Others
I have grown up being taught to love God. I have also been taught to love others. I feel like when I was growing up there was an asterisk (*) beside “love others”. It seemed to me that the people who taught me to love others, loved others who looked like them and acted like them. I’ve since learned that Jesus meant that I was to love people who didn’t look like me, or even look like me. I should not look at others in judgment but look at them in love. This is harder to do than it appears on the surface. There are people in our world that are hard to love because of their evil behavior or their hatred. I always need God’s help in loving the “unlovable” or the “hard to love” people.
Jesus had some interesting interactions with the religious leaders and the teachers of the law. It was often negative because they were asking questions to trap Him. This one teacher of the law listened first and then asked a powerful question of Jesus and received a powerful answer. Check this out….
32 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. 33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:32-34 NLT)
I think the man took the words right out of Jesus mouth when he said, “this is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law”. This conversation wasn’t combative at all. Earlier when Jesus had first answered the man’s question, Jesus had said that to the second command was EQUALLY IMPORTANT. Check this out….
29 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. 30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ 31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NLT)
It’s one thing to love God well – it’s another thing to love others well. These two are not to be separated. I don’t know if I’ve ever noticed that description “equally important” before. The Lord loves seeing His kids loving well. He loved us first. He calls us to love others. I remember singing a song years ago that says: “They will know we are Christians by our love” Our love should be reflected in every action and every word we speak when we love others. My love for God and for others should be the very essence of my life.
Pressing On!
Dwayne