“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
Everyone seems to always be wanting to know what the “greatest” whatever is, Amen? We’re all about the “greatest” and “best” be it a sports star, a vacation, a house or whatever your mind flies to like bugs to light at night. There is nothing new under the sun. We discover in Jesus’ time they were all about this too. In these verses in Matthew above, Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment of the Law. He concisely sums up the Ten Commandments into two: Love God, Love others. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these.
Biblical love is supreme of all the graces. Indeed, the Apostle Paul in writing through the power of the Holy Spirit God’s definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13 tells us love is the greatest – even over faith and hope. So what exactly is love? Is it some sort of romantic fantasy of our own imaginations? According to Scripture, it is an action, its descriptors being: patient, kind, it does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, it does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, and the greatest – in my humble opinion - is that it never fails. Never. This love is supernatural love and only believers in Christ Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit are equipped to love like this. Flesh will fail us here. It is how Jesus loved (and loves!). Everyone wants to receive this kind of love and we are called to give it. That’s how people know we belong to the Master – by our love.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19 (NIV)