Matthew 22: 37-40, “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 the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Love is much more than just a verb. 1 John 4:7 says, God is love. If there needs to be a word that could explain Him, nothing could replace ‘love’. In the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22), Love is the most important constituent. In fact if you read Gal 5:22 and then 1 Cor 13 you’ll realize Love is the summation of the fruit. We commonly say faith is all that we need, but Bible says in 1 Cor.13:2, “If I have faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing”.
Love is the greatest commandment. Love the Lord the most in your life and place Him above all in your priorities! Love Him not just with your brains, not just with your heart but with your soul and mind. Loving Him should be your desire, your dream! This is the first and the greatest commandment. Next or the second commandment is Love your neighbour. Then the question was asked, who is my neighbour? Jesus replies by the Story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). In the story, the Priest and the Levite turned out to be religious nuts without spiritual fruits! The Samaritan had Love and you know what he did. Jesus says, ‘Go, and do the same’
1 John 2:15-17 says “Do not love the world or anything in the world…the world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” Loving anything that is of the world is a ‘don’t!’ Recognize and re-arrange your priorities in life today. Remember, He is your priority. All you have received is just because of His’ Love and all He desires back is your Love!
Bible says, love that He seeks is the Love with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. It could have been just ‘Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind! The meaning would still be the same isn’t it? The very fact it is specified ‘with all your’ 3 times shows how important it is. All of us Love God. But do we really love ‘with all…’?
Give your whole self to Him, even when you can reason yourself out. The most precious thing you could give Him is your time. Spend time more with Him than for Him. Luke 10:39-42 portraits two ladies who loved Him-Martha and Mary. Martha was doing a lot for Jesus but Mary was just there with Him. Jesus clearly says Mary chose the better portion. Don’t think you can impress Him by your doings. Martha tried; she even tried to get the Master’s attention by complaining about Mary. But Jesus valued Mary’s time and presence more!
Everyone has explanations and excuses for not praying. We’ll look into the story of the woman with the alabastar jar (Mat. 26:6-13) to understand it a little better. In vs. 7 we see she poured a very expensive perfume on His head. Neither did she bother about the price she had to pay nor did she think on what others would say. Look at what the disciples said, “Why this waste...this perfume could have sold at a high price and the money given to the poor”. How logical, isn’t it? They definitely made a valid point. When it comes to time in this age we have a lot of reason to miss prayer meetings! And just a lot of reasons for not praying. It can look genuine for you, but maybe not for Him! He loves it when He matters the most to you. Also remember, loving your neighbour is the second and not the first commandment. ‘Good’ is many a times the enemy of the ‘Best’. The sacrifices you make because of your love for Him is of high worth in His sight. Don’t look at what the world says. Remember nobody encouraged her, instead they criticized her but Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me”. Whose opinion matters for you today? The world’s or Jesus’?
Everyone has explanations and excuses for not praying. We’ll look into the story of the woman with the alabastar jar (Mat. 26:6-13) to understand it a little better. In vs. 7 we see she poured a very expensive perfume on His head. Neither did she bother about the price she had to pay nor did she think on what others would say. Look at what the disciples said, “Why this waste...this perfume could have sold at a high price and the money given to the poor”. How logical, isn’t it? They definitely made a valid point. When it comes to time in this age we have a lot of reason to miss prayer meetings! And just a lot of reasons for not praying. It can look genuine for you, but maybe not for Him! He loves it when He matters the most to you. Also remember, loving your neighbour is the second and not the first commandment. ‘Good’ is many a times the enemy of the ‘Best’. The sacrifices you make because of your love for Him is of high worth in His sight. Don’t look at what the world says. Remember nobody encouraged her, instead they criticized her but Jesus said, “She has done a beautiful thing to me”. Whose opinion matters for you today? The world’s or Jesus’?
The best part is ‘Love is the fulfillment of the law’ Rom. 13:10. The whole Bible hangs on these two commandments. Were you saying following the whole Bible is impossible? It isn’t. It could be hard, yet possible! All that it requires is Love…
FAITH in Jesus Christ, as we know is the entrance to our journey; HOPE of the eternal life is our destiny; LOVE carries us through. There are no shortcuts. Remember, FAITH is not a ticket to HOPE!
1Corinthians 13: 13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is LOVE.
