Matthew 22:37-39
“Jesus said to him," "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Matthew 22:37-39 NKJV
These words send my heart soaring as no other words have done. They were the verses that convicted me of my need for a very personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are the words that have constantly guided and goaded me to pursue the knowledge of Christ every day since the Lord began to walk with me. As Christians, if we are to live according to Scripture, Jesus holds this commandment as the foundation by which we build.
If we do not first give ourselves entirely to Jesus heart, soul, and mind, our structure will be off. Everything hangs on getting this right. We must allow Jesus’ grace to affect us to the deepest parts of our hearts, souls, and minds.
There are three great relationships in life. Our relationship with God, our relationship with self, and our relationship with other people.
Our life is like a cross with vertical Godward and horizontal manward lines intersecting at the point of self. Interestingly self is given a much less important third place, almost an afterthought. We are to love others as we love ourselves. The biblical emphasis is loving outward. The vertical is always the first and most important relationship.
If we look at the Ten Commandments we see that the first four have to do with our relationship to God while the last six have to do with our relationship to others. Our Lord Jesus taught us the same thing. The first and greatest commandment is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbor.
God is our creator and sustainer, and therefore He has the first claim on our lives. God has shown us the greatest love in Jesus, therefore, how we respond to this love is of the utmost importance.
Our relationships with the people around us come and go, but our relationship with God will continue forever. A true Christian ethic must always start here. The horizontal relationship is firmly in second place. When everything is working right, our love for others should flow out of our love for God. If we do not love people whom we have seen, how will we love God whom we have not seen? We need to love the people around us truly and actively.
Our love should be clearly seen in the things we say and the things we do. In third place is self. Yes we should love ourselves. For most people self love is not the problem. Whether we think we do or not, most people love themselves more than they love others. This is seen in practical examples of seeking our own good and comfort before that of others.
Instead we should seek to love others as much as we love ourselves. It is not about us, it is about God and others. In a holy heart, self is happily and rightly minimized. In all of these relationships the standard, ethic, and goal is love.
Self-compassion, self-care, self-love – this is important to how we love our neighbors and how we love God. Whenever you read a passage about loving ourselves, loving God, or loving others, take some time to reframe the passage to apply to all three. Let your understanding of each inform your understanding of the others, because we’re called to love our neighbors as ourselves. Love seeks what is best for others. Let us today love God with your whole self. Love others as ourselves.
Let us turn our passion into the obedience of constant prayer and daily immersion in His great letter to us, His written Word. Hide it in your hearts, be guided by its instruction, feast on it for your joy in knowing your Lord better and better. Press on to know Him, He who is worthy of all our love, loyalty, companionship, service, faithfulness and obedience. He is worthy of all!!
Father, thank You for this day and loving us when we were dead in our sins and for bringing us into Your family, simply because we trusted the Lord Jesus as Savior. Lord, we want to love You with every part of our being. Lord, may we live as You would choose and love You with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Lord, please accept the work of our hands, the words of our mouth, the moments of our rest, and the love of our heart as our worship to You this day. Lord, use us to be the touch of Your love to all that need it today.
Father, we love You. Amen !
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