Help and Hope in a Divided WorldSample

The Meaning of Both

Years ago, New Testament scholar and philosopher Gary Habermas came to share with our team at World Help.

He started with a well-known passage in Matthew about loving God and your neighbor and offered a fresh perspective I had never considered before: These commands are numbered.

1: Love God

2: Love your neighbor

These are God’s top two priorities. Not being “right.” Not being in one political camp or the other. Not winning an argument on social media. A completely different set of values than what permeates our culture and, sadly, many of our churches today.

I think it’s relatively easy for us to get comfortable with Number 1. We love God. We go to church. We read our Bibles, and we truly feel good about that. But let’s be honest. The whole business of loving our neighbors can feel scary, sacrificial, and just plain uncomfortable. Leaning on perfect church attendance seems like a walk in the park in comparison.

It’s actually quite inconvenient that the truest expression of our love for God is reflected in how well we love others. But, according to Jesus, it’s how we were always meant to live. In order to love others well, we must love God well. And once we love God with everything, we will be driven to love others. We will be compelled to charge into the darkness with the love and hope of Christ. We will be burdened for what burdens the heart of God.

Lives are changed when we first love God with all our heart. And the natural outcome of that love toward God is an outpouring of love for our neighbors. You can’t have one without the other. We can’t follow Christ without loving the people He made in His image.

Loving God AND loving people. Loving people—not in spite of, but because—because of our love for God. Both.

Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV)

“‘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.’”