Gospel

The Greatest Commandment

by Roland Crim
05/27/18
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Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘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.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-40 NIV

The Pharisees are at it again, in their relentless pursuit of attempting to trap the Lord in His beliefs and speech. Of course, Jesus is quite up to the task of answering the one who was an expert in the law.

We can say that we do love the Lord God with our heart, mind, and soul. But, that is not good enough. It needs to be with all our heart, all our mind, and all our soul. Now that is not easily done, yet, this is the first, and foremost commandment. How can we hope to do this? On our own, we cannot. We must have the Holy Spirit indwelling us if we are to be able to do so. We must also totally release ourselves to His care, giving up our will that His will may be done. We must come to Him, repenting of our sins, and seeking His help to love Him as we are commanded to do. We must be in prayer often with the Lord, and must delve often into God’s word.

We must also remember the importance of the second commandment, which is like the first. We are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Again, this is not an easy thing to do, yet, we are commanded to do so. Again, without the Holy Spirit living within us, we will not able to accomplish this either. We must pray for others, putting their needs before our own.

We have been told by the Lord, that which are the two greatest commandments. Let us work at loving in the manner we have been directed by the Lord.