“The Law”
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got
together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus
replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind.’ This is the first and
greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as
yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:34-40
The
Jews had some 600 rules from the Old Testament and many more that had been
imposed on them by the religious leaders of their day. Just imagine their
surprise when Jesus narrowed down the most important, to just two. Those two
should be just as important to us today as they were to Jesus over 2,000 years
ago.
Jesus
wants us to love the LORD our God with everything we have. Jesus wants us to
love our neighbors as ourselves.
In
essence, Jesus is telling us that the way God knows we love Him is by how we
treat people, all of them. Loving our neighbors can be a challenge. As we love
God and our neighbors, everything falls into place. If we love our neighbors,
we can’t cheat on them, we can lie to them, and we can’t covet what belongs to
them. Loving others for God’s sake even provides the grace and strength to
forgive those who have heaped injustices on us.
Who
needs to see God’s love today through you? The more unlovable the person, the
greater the statement about how much you love God!
Loving God is the key to loving others.
Our Daily Bread –