Reflections: The Greatest Commandment - Love of God and neighbour
32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbour as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” - Mark 12v32
Reflecting on the passage I wrote on earlier - I was struck by how the Lord Jesus defines love. In the passage above, he seems to speak about the how of love: with your all and as yourself.
With your all:
Love is not to be half-hearted. Love is not to be passive. Intention, effort is involved. So it is with love for God. God wants us to know him, to read his word - to have our affections for him be stirred as we come to know who he is. God wants us to love him with every part of our lives not the small ones. Our hearts are to be committed and devoted to him. God calls us to engage our minds - thoughts, and to use our strength to love him.
As yourself:
It is safe to say that we love ourselves. As a matter of fact ought to: made in God’s image; made with dignity and divine creativity under perfect relationship of the Trinity, man and woman. To not love oneself is not to be a steward of the life and persons that the Lord made us to be. We ought to take care of ourselves, clothe, feed, shelter and protect ourselves from harm. Jesus calls us to treat our neighbours as ourselves. To treat them with the same dignity, respect as we would ourselves.
This kind of love, love of God and love of neighbour is not at all easy. It requires that with God we forsake allegiance to people and things that are not God. It requires that with our neighbours we make every effort not to be selfish, but to consider others the same way the Lord considered us when he created us, when he brought us into life through his Son Jesus. This kind of love reveals that it is impossible without the Lord’s help and work in us by his Spirit.
For us, to love the Lord in this way is to put everything second and him first and above it all. He has authority and a say in all aspects of our lives. This love is attainable through trusting in his Son Jesus, who makes us his kingdom people, Therefore to love in this way is possible because the Lord’s people who are part of the eternal kingdom have the hope of the Holy Spirit sanctifying them and enabling us us to love in ways beyond ourselves, in a way that pleases the Lord.
Jesus does not call us to love in such a way without him having done so himself. There are numerous incidences in the Bible that show of Jesus’s love and relationship with God the Father, the selfless, intentional, humble, compassionate, sacrificial, gracious and generous love.
