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 neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:37–40. This response would likely have gone over well since it came directly from Deuteronomy 6:4–5, a passage known as the ‘Shema’, which the Jews repeated twice every day. However, it was what the Lord said next that silenced His critics. He proclaimed, ‘’on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” – Matthew 22:40.
What a magnificent summary of the Law. Think about the Ten Commandments. The first four deal with our relationship to God, which is why we are to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. The final six deal with loving our neighbour.
The world teaches that you can love your neighbour without even caring or loving God; this at best can be described as hypocrisy! Much of the love we see today is deeply rooted in personal interests, hence much evil in the world today. World leaders advocate love for one another whilst denouncing ‘love for God’… well, how far has this got us? In the end we see that the interests of rich business men is much of what drives the love propagated by the world. Sadly, even the church has fallen prey to this philosophy as we attempt to express the love to others; without emphasis on love for God. One cannot perfectly love another person without having the first love; experiencing the love of God.
1 John 4:7-8
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Love is a person. God is love, the original and only Omni-potent love.
Mark12:32-43
And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbour as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.
