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.” Matthew 22:37-40 NLT
It took Jesus a few seconds to sum up the entire law and prophets that we call the Old Testament. We might throw in the prophecies of the New Testament as well, but the summary remains the same: two loves. From myself to God with all of my heart, soul, and mind a greatest love; and from myself to my neighbor an equally important love. These two loves are a 24-hour, 7-day per week love for the remainder of my life and beyond. I can't be fired from this job for it is based and is sourced from God's love for us. God will not quit loving each of us with a complete and perfect love, and that love enables you and me to learn to love Him with that complete love of heart, soul, and mind.
Neither myself nor my neighbor may on the surface appear to be worthy of love. Yet, God has given us His love and commands that we complete the triangle by loving each other as He loves us. As with any new job, we were not very proficient at the first. In time we will grow to be proficient and professional in our loves for God and our neighbor. Wow, that sure makes me sound better than I appear to be. Of course it does, this love has never been dependent upon my skill, knowledge or capacity to produce love. This growth in love comes from the sacrifice of the Man Himself: Jesus my Lord and Savior!
Great and mighty and loving is the Lord our God,
Bucky
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