love, love (Mt 22:34-40)

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Psalm 149; Ephesians 6:1-9; Matthew 22:34-40


"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
(Matthew 22:37-40)


Test question # 3.

This is "the great commandment in the Law." Jesus doesn't give one, he gives two. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments. Everything God said through Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc. can and must be interpreted through these two commands of God.

The two commands are linked by the opening phrase in each, "You shall love." Some have said that the idea here is something like, "you shall love the Lord your God by loving your neighbor as yourself." I do think that is the bottom line.

Our self-examination this Lent, for example, must include how we treat those we encounter in our lives, especially the ones in need. We cannot say we love God if we do not love our neighbor (1 John; James 1-2).

What can transform us to be able to do this, to want to do this? Where can I be resourced with such a love that is just not innate in me? By looking to, meditating on, receiving and adoring the only One who loved God with all his heart, soul, and mind; the only One who fully and to the end loved his neighbor, especially the ones in need, as himself.

Thank you Lord Jesus.