Words for Life Articles

 

Matthew 22: 36 - 40

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” ³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Mark 12: 28 – 34

²⁸ Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”

²⁹ Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

³² So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. ³³ And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

³⁴ Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

But after that no one dared question Him.

God is love and love is from God.

God first loved us and continues to love us. In response He calls us in return to love too like He loves. To love Him first with all our hearts, soul and mind, and then to love our neighbours, other human beings as ourselves.

 

The First

The first of the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. This is about loving God with our whole Spirit, Soul and Body.  Let’s examine these four areas:

Our heart:

• Our heart is the centre of our lives as people. It consists of both the Spirit and the Soul. God wants us to love Him with our spirit. When we become born again believers, he puts His love in our hearts (our spirit) by the Holy Spirit. God wants us to continue to love Him and grow in that love Him for Him, by allowing the Holy Spirit that in us when we become born again, to rule and reign supreme. He wants us to love him through allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us, lead us, and guide us and cause the spirit man in us to have the upper hand and dominate the soul and the body.

Our Soul:

• Our soul consists of the mind, emotions and will. God calls us to love Him with our mind, in our thought life. He wants us to love Him with our feelings and affections. He wants our feelings for Him to be that of unconditional love. He wants us to set our affection on Him. He wants us to love Him with our wills by choosing to make the right decisions that will please Him and glorify His name.

Our mind:

• Our mind consists of our thinking and intellectual process. God calls us to love Him through the thoughts we think about Him. He wants us to have the right mindset and thoughts about Him

Our Strength

• Our strength refers to our physical strength. God wants us to love by using our bodies to glorify Him. By using our physical energy, skills, abilities, giftings to do His work and build His Kingdom

 

So, this commandment is about loving God wholeheartedly, with everything that we have and that we are. It is about putting God first and foremost in our lives. Making Him the centre of our lives and beings. This love is treasuring, admiring, delighting in, being crazy about God above all things, as the greatest treasure of our lives. The nature of this love is that which says like the Apostle Paul: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ my Lord” – Philippians 3: 8

How do we express or live out this love for God?

1. By obeying His commandments

John 14: 15

¹⁵ “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

John 14: 21

²¹ He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

1 John 5: 2 – 3

² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ³ For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

2. By keeping His Word

1 John 2: 5

⁵ But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him.

3. By worshipping Him

John 4: 21 - 24

²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

4. By being in His presence and sitting at His feet

Luke 10: 38 - 42

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

5. By loving Him more than our natural family – Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, Wife, Brother and Sister

Matthew 10: 37

³⁷ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Luke 14: 26

²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

6. By not loving the world or the things in the world

1 John 2: 15 – 17

¹⁵ Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. ¹⁷ And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

7. With our deeds and not just our words

1John 3: 18

¹⁸ My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth.

Mark 14: 3 – 9

And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. ⁴ But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, “Why was this fragrant oil wasted? ⁵ For it might have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor.” And they criticized her sharply. ⁶ But Jesus said, “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a good work for Me. ⁷ For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good; but Me you do not have always. ⁸ She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint My body for burial. ⁹ Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.”

In our strength we are not able to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The Holy Spirit is there wanting to help us love God with our all. He is our helper. Let’s turn to Him for grace to help us love the Lord the way he wants us to

 

The Second

The second of the greatest commandment is like the first. To love our neighbour as our self. This is about loving other people. Loving them with agape love, unconditional love. The Good Samaritan parable exemplifies how we are called to love others as our self.

Luke 10: 25 – 37

²⁵ And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

²⁷ So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbour as yourself.’”

²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”

³⁰ Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. ³³ But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. ³⁴ So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ ³⁶ So which of these three do you think was neighbour to him who fell among the thieves?”

³⁷ And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

How do we express or live out this love for our neighbour based on this parable?

1. Being compassionate and showing compassion
2. Being patient and kind
3. Helping others in time of their need
4. Freely you have received, freely give. Being generous
5. Caring for others
6. Seeking the good and well-being of others

We also express love for others through forgiveness

Luke 15: 11 – 22

¹¹ Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. ¹² And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. ¹³ And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. ¹⁴ But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. ¹⁵ Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. ¹⁶ And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.

¹⁷ “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! ¹⁸ I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’

²⁰ “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. ²¹ And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

²² “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. ²³ And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; ²⁴ for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.

1 Corinthians 13 shows us how to live at this love for others:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. ² And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ 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. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part. ¹⁰ But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. ¹² For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

¹³ And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Again, only the Holy Spirit can help us to love others wholeheartedly and unreservedly like this. Ask for His help today and every day and He will help you as you as you submit to His leading and guidance.

Finally, God is love and he or she who loves is born of God, and belongs to God. The greatest and best thing you and I can do is to love.