Love God; Love People

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37, CSB 

If you had the opportunity to ask Jesus something face to face, what would you ask? I would ask, “Jesus, would You sum up the whole Bible in one or two statements for me? What does Christianity really mean? Would You tell me the purpose of all that goes on in the world and what I’m supposed to do?” 

In Matthew 22:36–39, a lawyer asked Jesus one question: “Teacher, which command in the law is greatest?” Jesus responded with two commandments that coincided with one another. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Jesus explained that all the laws and everything that the prophets taught hung on loving God and loving one another. You can’t have one without the other. Loving God with all your being will cause His love to overflow from within you to other people, because this is precisely how He loves. 

You can’t really love other people unless you sincerely love God. True love comes from God. “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). On the other hand, if you have a hard time getting along with people and showing love to your neighbor, then you must check your love for God. “If anyone says, 

‘I love God,’ and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). 

PRAY: Ask God to give you an overflowing love for Him and for others. You’ll be more effective at sharing Jesus and loving others when you do it out of the overflow of your love for God. 

ACT: Make a list of people in your life who love God and love you well. You have been blessed; now be a blessing to your one by loving them in a way that they can see the love of God through you.