Scripture

Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

Observation

The Pharisees again come to test Jesus with a question, “What is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

Jesus replies with not one but two commandments: Love God with all your heart and love your neighbour. The entire law and the demands of the prophets rest on these two commandments.

Jesus then asks the Pharisees, “Who is the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They reply that he is the Son of David. Jesus asks how this can be when David himself calls him “my Lord”?

Application

The fundamental instruction at the heart of discipleship is that we love God with all that we are. Whole- hearted worship of the Lord is the only acceptable response to His love for us.

Jesus reminds us that worship of God must also lead us to love for God’s people, and so we must love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Everything that christians do, then, must be motivated by love for God and for His people.

I must ensure that my heart is clean at this point, because it is so easy to deceive myself.

Do I really worship God with a pure motive?

Do I really serve my neighbour from love of for the approval of other people?

We shouldn’t lose ourselves in introspection, so that we end up loving neither God nor people. Rather we just need to keep our motivations clean.

A life of worship of God and serving the people around us us the life that God has planned for every person.

Prayer

Lord please help me to keep my eyes on you, to love you with all my heart and to love the people you have placed around me. Amen.