“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.” Mark 12:30-31.
When we love God, we fulfill the first four of the Ten Commandments and when we love our neighbors, we fulfill the remaining six (Exo 20: 3-17). To love God is to obey Him (John 14:15, 21, 23, 24). When we obey God in everything, we demonstrate that we love Him. We will then experience His love fully in our lives; the overflow of which will enable us to love our neighbors. We cannot genuinely love our neighbors if we do not love God (1John 4:7, 5:2). Conversely, we cannot claim that we love God if we do not love our neighbors (1John 4:12).
This is what it will take to love our neighbors:
“Love is patient,
love is kind.
It does not envy,
it does not boast,
it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others,
it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects,
always trusts,
always hopes,
always perseveres”(1Corth. 13:4-7).
So how do we measure up in our love for God and our neighbors? Christ has to be in us and live His life through us so we can love God and our neighbors. We could never do it on our own. Thank God for His enabling grace to love.
Author: Rev. Sunday Bwanhot
Rev. Sunday Bwanhot is EMS/SIM Missionary. He serves as Team leader of SIM Culture Connexions; Pastors of ECWA Chicago and ECWA USA DCC Chairman.
