Daily Verse: Mark 12:30-31

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ‘The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

 

When Jesus was asked to identify which of God’s commandments is most important, he gave the response above. He highlights love as the most important instruction…love for God and love for our neighbor. What strikes me about Jesus’ response is the inclusion of “Love” in both commandments. There are numerous “Thou shall not’s” throughout the Old Testament that he could have landed on. Yet Jesus lands on love, highlighting LOVE as the most important thing. It’s astounding, encouraging, inspiring, and comforting to know that our Lord rests on love. Even though we deserve nothing but wrath for our continuous sinful behavior, Christ still rests on love. Jesus is love and he displayed this unmatched love by coming to this world, God in the flesh, and taking the hits for us. And he asks that we genuinely and deeply love Him and those around us. But to be love, we have to put that love into motion…we can’t just sit in our homes or churches, soaking up the Word of God, thinking good thoughts, and not go out into the world. Christ put love into motion when he hung from that cross and he instructs us to put it into motion as well. May we welcome opportunities for the Holy Spirit to work in our lives to share the love of Christ with those around us. So that if another person has nothing else to smile about today, they may smile about the fact that they are deeply loved by the Lord! To God be the glory!