PART 1 -LOVE FOR GOD
The greatest commandments.
Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law? (Mathew 22:36).
I can only imagine how prestigious and learned the Pharisee lawyer must have felt as he posed this question to Jesus, the multitudes of people gathered with their faces curiously awaiting Jesus’ answer, and the fellow Pharisees with mocking smiles playing on their mouths imagining how this would finally bring Jesus to his downfall. Little did they know that it was through their carnal foolishness that the true meaning of Christianity would be brought about.
The scripture through Mathew 12:29-31 sums up the roles and responsibilities of believers God, to the church and to the world at large.
Vs. 30
Jesus answered him, the first of all the commandment is; you shall love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, this is the first commandment.
Vs 31
And the second, like it, is this; you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
ALL represents passion and in this commandments we learn that Jesus expects his followers to do everything with great passion. The revelation in this scripture is that when we center everything on the love of God then everything else will fall into place but it needs to begin with God.
Jesus calling these the greatest commandments implies that there is more to this than just loving God and loving our neighbors. He challenges us to see what love really is and we learn that real love is indeed walking in obedience to God’s commandment. We also learn that it is impossible for us to claim to love a God whom we cannot see and at the same time hate our neighbors whom we see daily. This means that love for God and love for others are directly proportional and that our reflection for the love of God begins with our reflection for the love of others that begins with a reflection of our love for ourselves.