Love The Lord Your God With All Your Heart And All Your Soul And All Your Mind
Love Your Neighbour As Yourself
MATHEW 22:37-40
“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.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
”Matthew 22:37-40 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/mat.22.37-40.NKJ
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Jesus said that if we truly love God and our neighbours, we would naturally keep all the other commandments.
If you really love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind, surely you would naturally fear offending him.
But looking at God's law positively, rather than worrying about how to keep it, will help us concentrate on all we can do to show our love for God and others.
If we are to love God with all our minds, then we must fill our minds with knowledge; the more knowledge of God, the more we can know Him, understand Him, His laws, His ways, what He wants from us, and His will for us. But knowing Him intimately through relationship will empower us to concentrate on all we can do to show Him our love.
Only by studying God's Word can we take in knowledge, and by putting into practice all that we learn, can we show our obedience to Him.
Only by relationship with Him, can we receive revelation of the Scriptures and in every individual situation from Him.
Revelation shows us where to focus our prayers in all things and brings about change in not only in circumstances, but in our very nature, as His Word working within (HEBREWS 4:12), combined with our testings, builds our faith and patience, that we become complete and needing nothing (JAMES 1:2-4).
Even the impossible is possible with God (LUKE 18:27; MATHEW 19:26), including the impossible situation that you are facing today.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 12:1-2 NKJV
To love your neighbour is the second commandment, but equally as important as the first.
It can be difficult to love our neighbours when they are unkind and disrespectful to us, or we see them treating others badly, especially our loved ones.
But just as God's love for His people is unconditional and selfless, so our love for others must be unconditional and selfless.
We must take a stand and hate their sin, but must love the sinner as does Christ.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
John 3:16-17 NKJV
That doesn't mean we have to continually put up with their abuse, but it does mean we can't seek revenge when they wrong us.
Rather, we should pray for them, forgive them, and make their salvation our goal for their life.
By this, our Father in heaven can forgive you and make your salvation His goal for your life (MATHEW 6:14).
To love is more than a feeling or emotion; it is an action, a duty of care toward others without any expectation of something in return.
If your neighbour is hungry and unable to feed himself, wherever he is, regardless of nationality, skin colour, faith, or sin, we believers are called to feed him, just as one feeds himself when hungry. It is this kind of love that may draw many to the Lordship of Christ and bring them to repentance.
But helping the needy is not subsidising their extravagant life styles or funding their sin. Giving must always be by the leading of the Holy Spirit, and never out of emotions and feelings.
To give out of emotions can undermine God’s work and bring poverty on one’s self.
Love is the most important ingredient in our Christian lives; “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.”
I Corinthians 13:4-10 NKJV
My brethren, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
I John 4:20-21 NKJV
Make love the foundation of your faith and give God all the glory.
If only everyone could obey these two great commandments, this world would quickly become a better place to live.
All glory to God forever and ever! Amen.
