Matthew 22:37-40 NLT
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Jesus was pressed for an answer by an expert on religious law on what the most important commandment was.
The most important rule to follow, if you will.
The first part of the answer, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind,” presupposes that you believe in God.
If you do not believe in God and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, nothing else matters.
This life doesn’t matter.
What you do in this life does not matter.
And here’s the rub; we can not love others without loving God, no matter what we think about it.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
There is a lot of religions that claim to know God and to be the path to God.
But there is only one person that lived on this earth who claimed to be God and died for our sins. And that was Jesus Christ.
John 14:6-7 NLT
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!”
Most of these religions make it about what you have to do to get to heaven. But there is nothing that we can ever do to earn our way to heaven.
It is only through our faith in Jesus Christ that we can get to heaven.
John 3:16 NLT
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Romans 10:8-13 NLT
In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”
WOW… what a promise!!
When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, then the second half of this verse that Jesus called “equally important” starts to happen in our lives.
Matthew 22:39 NLT
A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
A struggle that many people face here is that they don’t feel that they “love themselves” enough to love others. Or that they have to learn to love themselves to “love others.”
This problem is not as hard of a problem as we think it may be.
If you got up this morning, took a shower, brushed your teeth, or combed your hair, you love yourself.
If you got into a conflict with someone today because you didn’t get your way with something, your love for yourself was more significant than your love for that other person.
Don’t let this faulty thinking get in the way of loving others.
First, accept Jesus Christ as Your Lord and Savior; it is the only thing that will truly set you free.
Second, start loving others as you love yourself.
John 15:13 NLT
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Heavenly Father, Thank You for sending Jesus Christ into this world for us. I pray, Lord, that Your Word shapes my heart and helps me to love others the way that You loved us.
I thank You for the people in my life, and I pray that my heart is set first to forgive and compassion to help those around me with unfailing love.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen!! 🙏❤️
