Matt 22:37-40
37 Jesus replied, " 'You must love the Lord your God with allyour heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatestcommandment. 39 A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments." (NLT)
(seealso Mark 12:29-31 & Luke 10:26-28)
The greatest and most important commandment starts with loving God first and foremost. And how are we to love God? We are to love God with our entire being, with everything we have. Why should we love God first? Because He first loved us. Our nature is not to love outside of loving ourselves and that is because of our sin nature. God commands us to love so that we can move from a self-centered life to a life that is about others. God thinks of every one of His creations all at the same time and He wants us to think and do for others as He does. Granted we cannot think of everyone but we can love those that are within our area to love. Thus the second commandment is to love our neighbor (those outside of ourselves) as we love ourselves. If you find it hard to love others then it’s time to spend some time on your knees before God asking Him to show you how to love the unlovable as He does. As Jesus said in John 13:34-35 - 34 "So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love eachother. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are mydisciples." (NLT) By our expression of God’s love (unconditional love) to the world they will know that we are children of the living God and that the love of Jesus Christ lives within us.
Abide in His love.
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