Proclamation:
"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.'" Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
Explanation:
These
words of Jesus, The Christ, were spoken in response to a question which was
designed to test Him. An expert in the
law asked Him, “… which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew
22:34-36) Jesus replied, love God with
all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And then He said, “… love your neighbor as
yourself.” After that Jesus said that
all of the Law is based upon these two commandments.
Application:
To love God with all of our “heart ... soul ... and … mind ..." identifies the completeness of our love for The Lord. We should love The Lord God with all of our being, as much as is humanly possible. We are also to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Our "... neighbor ..." is not just the person who lives next door, but it refers to all people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to have a sincere love for one another, and love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22) This type of love is not the worldly “like, lust, or infatuation” but it is a Christian brotherly love. We are to love the person, not necessarily all of their behavior, and that requires the aide of The Holy Spirit. We should pray daily for God to help us follow these two commandments. We are to love one another fervently, without hypocrisy, from a pure heart and not with manipulative, self-serving intentions. We need to pray for God's help to love each other in a Christ-like manner.
To love God with all of our “heart ... soul ... and … mind ..." identifies the completeness of our love for The Lord. We should love The Lord God with all of our being, as much as is humanly possible. We are also to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Our "... neighbor ..." is not just the person who lives next door, but it refers to all people, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are to have a sincere love for one another, and love one another deeply, from the heart. (1 Peter 1:22) This type of love is not the worldly “like, lust, or infatuation” but it is a Christian brotherly love. We are to love the person, not necessarily all of their behavior, and that requires the aide of The Holy Spirit. We should pray daily for God to help us follow these two commandments. We are to love one another fervently, without hypocrisy, from a pure heart and not with manipulative, self-serving intentions. We need to pray for God's help to love each other in a Christ-like manner.
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