Read Matthew 22:34-40
Love God. Love Others.
After hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees all gathered together in order to test Jesus … again! They had one of the Pharisees, who was proficient in the teachings of the law, to ask Jesus a question. He asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 which says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Then Jesus added, “The second greatest commandment is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” He quoted Leviticus 19:18.
Then Jesus said that everything the law and the prophet says in Scripture can be summed up in these two commandments: Love God and Love Others.
But what does this really mean? To love God with all your inner and out most being is to be 100% surrendered to him. You can’t truly love God if you aren’t devoted to him 100%. It’s the same with loving my wife. I can’t truly love her unless I am 100% devoted to her as her husband. The love I love her and others with should be the same Love that God loved me with: a love of commitment and sacrifice.
As I pray to God, “show me my weaknesses,” I feel I am falling short in this kind of love. I do love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, and mind. However, I have days when I give in to my flesh and turn my back on the Lord. When it comes to loving others, am I really devoted to their cause and need? Is my investment really a sacrificial love? Am I truly devoted to my wife so that I am committed to sharing the sacrificial love of Jesus. If you were to ask her to grade me on how well I am doing, would she give me an A+ on how devoted I am to her needs? Would she give me an A+ on my ability to show sacrificial love?
And not just my wife, but to those God puts in my path. Am I 100% committed to the cause of Christ, or does my flesh still captivate my attention?
When I recognize my failings, I think of the words of Paul in Romans 7:24-25.
In my mind, I’m a slave to the law of God in loving him and loving others. But in my sin nature, I’m still a slave to my flesh desires. “What a wretched man I am!” I hate when I fail God and fail others because of my sin nature. “Who can rescue Me from all this? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ Our Lord.”
Though I fail, I won’t give up. I won’t quit persevering. I will keep falling face down before the Lord for forgiveness. I will continue to ask for strength to be an overcomer so I can love God and love others as he has called me to.
