Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” “This is the first and great commandment.” “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”” Matthew 22:37-39 NKJV.
Growth Indicator.
One of the greatest indicators that we growing in our relationship with God is found in our willingness to love. God is love. Love is not just something He does. It’s what He is. It stands to reason that we are never more godly, never more like God, than when we love.
How easily we may look at these two commandments and say quickly, “I love the Lord,” yet struggle with loving our neighbor. Jesus makes the second commandment as important as the first. We cannot fulfill the first commandment to love God without obeying the second commandment to love our neighbor (1 John 4:20).
Nor can we avoid this problem by narrowing our definition of “neighbor” to people “in our neighborhood” –that is, to those of our family, race,perspective, economic or intellectual level, value system, or religion.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), Jesus makes the world my neighbor by qualifying anyone God puts in my path, or who needs me, as “my neighbor.”
Tomorrow: Growth in Servanthood.
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Growth Indicator.
04 Dec 2014 Leave a comment
by Mannyr in a series of posts, Christianity, Comment, Light from the Pot
Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” “This is the first and great commandment.” “And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”” Matthew 22:37-39 NKJV.
Growth Indicator.
One of the greatest indicators that we growing in our relationship with God is found in our willingness to love. God is love. Love is not just something He does. It’s what He is. It stands to reason that we are never more godly, never more like God, than when we love.
How easily we may look at these two commandments and say quickly, “I love the Lord,” yet struggle with loving our neighbor. Jesus makes the second commandment as important as the first. We cannot fulfill the first commandment to love God without obeying the second commandment to love our neighbor (1 John 4:20).
Nor can we avoid this problem by narrowing our definition of “neighbor” to people “in our neighborhood” –that is, to those of our family, race,perspective, economic or intellectual level, value system, or religion.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37), Jesus makes the world my neighbor by qualifying anyone God puts in my path, or who needs me, as “my neighbor.”
Tomorrow: Growth in Servanthood.
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