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. A second is equally important: Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Observation

The Pharisees come to question Jesus some more. An expert in the law asks Jesus what is the most important commandment? Jesus tells him we must love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, and soul. The second commandment is to love our neighbour as ourselves. The whole law rests on these two commandments.

Then Jesus asks for the Pharisees: if the messiah is the Son of David then why does David call him “my Lord”?

No one could answer Jesus’ questions so they knew they could not test him with their own questions.

Application

Love is at the heart of the gospel. God loved us and so this calls forth a response of love for Him.

The word love is agape which means unconditional and selfless love. God loves us because He is love, and He cannot help but love. He loves us because He places an infinite value on us.

For this reason, we must love our neighbours as we love ourselves. God places an infinite value on other people, so I must recognise that and love them as God loves them. This applies to those who are born again as well as to those who are not.

This is an impossible commandment to fulfil in our own ability. We need God’s love, God’s Holy Spirit, dwelling in us in order to love God and our neighbours.

So we pursue God because He loves us. He enables us to love Him freely, and the overflow of this love is expressed in love to others.

Prayer

Lord, thank you for your love for me. Help me to love you and to know you, and may that love multiply as it flows out to the to the people in my street, at work, or at school. Amen