The key to fulfilling it well
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. – Matthew 22:36-39 (ESV)
During this confrontation, Jesus’ reply to the Pharisees was both an answer as well as a rebuke. The Pharisees, as a group, had long departed from their first love. What started out as a loving devotion to God and a pure passion for God’s word was now replaced with self-centered desires for popularity, power and possessions. They were rebuked because whatever they were doing did not come from an overflow of love in their hearts. If the motivation of all our works didn’t come from love, it counts for nothing. Paul himself explains this:
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. – 1Corinthians 13:2-3
- How do we live out of an overflow of love?
- How do we love the Lord and love others well?
- Have you been struggling to love?
This is the key: We must first receive perfect love from the Source of all love – our Heavenly Father. God is Love. Without Him, our love is weak for we cannot give what we don’t have. We can only express what we first receive. Would you take time to receive the extravagant love of God toward you?
We love because he first loved us. – 1John 4:19
