Love

Matthew 22:37-40 (New International Version)

³⁷Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'^a]">[a] ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'^b]">[b] ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The set up for this verse is that the scribes and pharisees were trying to trap Jesus into saying something blasphemous, and instead, he listed off the two greatest commandments: 1) Love God with all you have and 2) Love your neighbor as you love yourself. He goes so far as to say that the entirety of the Law and the Prophets, the whole of the Jewish Bible, rests on these two simple commandments.

How can this be? There are 33 books in the Christian Old Testament, and the Jewish Bible has even more books and commentaries... and Jesus is saying that they can all be summed up into two commandments?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your mind, and your soul...

This commandment is easy to see in the major commandments of the old testament. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me..." "Thou shalt not create any graven images..." "Honor the sabbath and keep it holy..." These commandments are all about how we should relate to God, and they all amount to focusing on him, loving him, giving him our time and our lives.

So, the Christians of old times, and the Jews before them, had a clear blueprint on how to love God, but those of us in modern times have a harder time of it. How can we love God with all of our heart? All of our mind? Our soul?

Well, we can work to spend our time with him. God wants an emotional relationship with us. He is our daddy, our father in heaven, and he wants us to love him like a child loves their earthly father. We should spend time with him, not out of a sense of duty but because we want to spend time with our father. Spending time is more than just coming to church once or twice a week, though that is important. Sunday services are good... we come together to sing praises and to learn about God... but, we need to spend more time than that. How many times a day do we find ourselves sitting there doing nothing?

We can take those times where we have nothing to do and turn our focus to God. Quietly praying, thanking God for our day and our experiences, singing praises or listening to music that helps us focus on him. You don't have to hide yourself in your closet to spend time with God, but that can't hurt.

What about your mind? How do you love God with your mind? By learning about him, studying and researching, going to classes. Many scientists say that the secret to a long life and long memory is continual learning. This is also the secret to life with God. No matter how long we've been a Christian, no matter what role we play in the Church, we should always strive to learn more. Even Pastors need to continue learning by going to classes and conferences, learning from other Christians.

There will never be a point that you know all there is to know about God. You will always be able to learn more. Most young Christians learn the verse "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God..." and think about it in relation to themselves. It's a verse that speaks to their current situation, and it helps them grow as Christians. Later, they will hear that same verse and think about it as more mature Christians, thinking about how it reflects on their new life and the lives of the people around them.

The entire Bible is like that. Each verse is layered, meaning within meaning. Christ told the disciples that he taught using parables because the crowds were not ready for him to tell them the truths bluntly and directly. New Christians and non-believers still are not ready to hear the truths directly, and so they learn a layer at a time. More mature Christians hear a verse taught to them and learn that next layer of meaning, each time taking a deeper lesson from the verse.

Love your neighbor as you love yourself...

Two key things must be taken from this verse: 1) We have to love our neighbor and 2) we have to love ourselves.

What is love? In this instance, love is a very broad thing. It is almost a restatement of the Golden Rule, that we should treat our neighbor as we would want to be treated ourselves. In all things. If your neighbor needs help with something, give it to them. You should approach them with a smile, treating them kindly. You shouldn't allow yourself to get into a war of accumulation with them... keeping up with the Joneses isn't loving your neighbor.

What about loving yourself? How does Jesus mean that? He means that you need to realize that you have self worth. You are a beloved child of God, blessed not cursed, given life not death. You deserve to be blessed. More than that, you are an heir of God. You are an heir to the throne, to the power, and as such you should act like it.

A Prince doesn't grovel, asking for scrimps and scrapes. A Prince lives his life, expecting to receive that which is his due. You should not be arrogant, but recognizing who you are is not arrogance.

In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the lost son comes home begging his father to take him back as a slave, and his father lifts him up and restores him as a son. The prodigal never lost his status as his father's son, he just lost his own self worth. We need to remember that. We are always children of the living God, no matter what we've done, what our lives are like, we are always children of God.

Beyond that, we need to recognize that we are not the only Princes. Everyone else is also a Child of God. Everyone else is a beloved heir of God. If you find yourself tempted to judge someone else's behavior, their life, or the condition of their soul, remember that those people are also Princes and Princesses. They are also heirs to God's throne. This is especially important when we're tempted to judge other Christians. They are doing their best to live their lives by God's word, just like we are.

Yes, sometimes we get it wrong. Sometimes Christians misinterpret God's word and are not living the way they should. If we see our brother or sister doing something we think is wrong, is against God's word, we need to pray long and hard and approach them without judgment. "Brother, I've seen this behavior, and I am worried about you" is much better than "Brother, you're sinning and sending yourself to hell!" Always remember how you would want someone to correct you. If the words you are planning to use would offend you, if directed at you, don't use them to correct someone else.