THE COMMAND TO LOVE
|
Matthew 22:37,39 |
|
|
Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” KJV |
Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” “Love your neighbour as yourself.” NIV |
God commands us to love Him and to love one another. God is Love, and any love we have that is genuine will come from God alone. When we are born again, born of God, He makes us into reflectors so that we can reflect His love to others. There is no other way that sinful man can love God and his neighbour.
Motorists rely on reflectors for direction when travelling from one destination to another, especially when the weather is bad, and visibility is poor. The headlights of our car also play a vital role in finding our way, and by switching them on it is our attempt at finding the correct path to travel on. There are three things that will destroy a reflector’s usefulness:
- DIRT – this obscures the effectiveness of the sign.
- DIRECTION – we cannot see which way to go if we are not looking.
- DISTANCE – the reflector is of little help if we are too far away from it.
For the believer, reflectors play a vital role in our Walk with the Saviour.
- DIRT – we are spiritual lepers; we are all unclean.
- DIRECTION – we cannot reflect Heaven looking at Earth.
- DISTANCE – we cannot reflect the Love of God to others if we are so far from Him that our view of Him is all but destroyed.
To reflect God’s love, we need COMPASSION – This begins with realising that we cannot show love without compassion. Jesus showed His compassion by putting Himself in our shoes and walking as we do on earth. He had compassion on the multitude. He looked on others and loved them. These are typical of the words that describe the course of the Saviour, that we might walk in paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake.
There is a CRISIS OF LOVE: The One who was the focal point of God’s pleasure should become the focal point of God’s punishment. This is the great mystery of the universe. Love gave the One who is altogether lovely for a sinful, lost, hateful world. The pinnacle of Love so Divine!