Learning What It Means To Love Others

In review of Mark 12:30-31 it says, “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. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself: There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Bottom Line:

Love God and love others

What this means to me:

Jesus says that the greatest two commandments are to love God with every part of my being, my heart, my soul and my strength. The second is to love others as much as I love myself.

Today's passage comes from Mark 12 where Jesus was questioned about the greatest commandment. Jesus replied, The most important commandment is this: "the Lord our God is the one and only Lord, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." The second is equally important: "love your neighbor as yourself." No other commandments are greater than these. These are much more important than to offer the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.

What I’m reminded of this morning is that, when I love God completely and care for others as I care for myself, then I fulfill the intent of the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament laws. I should let these two laws rule my thoughts, decisions, and actions. When uncertainty comes, I can ask myself which course of action best demonstrates love for God and love for others.

The Cross is where Christ brought us all together, the greatest portrait of God’s love. We are brothers and sisters in Christ with no room for hatred. His act of love knit every soul together as one, across every time zone and era, in every tiny corner of the globe.

Loving someone doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything they say and do. Love them and let God judge them. And show them the difference Christ’s love can make in the life of a believer. If I don’t act any differently than anyone else, then how will others ever have the opportunity to see Christ’s love in action?

In summary, I am to love God first, then my family, and then demonstrate the love of the Lord to those around me. I will find no greater challenge than to love someone who doesn’t deserve it. But this is exactly where I was when Jesus went to the Cross and died for me. Not one of us deserved it. Yet God in his infinite mercy sent His only Son to die anyway.