Love God, Love People
“Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’’”
Love God, love people is a very common expression in Christian circles. It finds its origination in one of the passages where Jesus is asked, “What is the greatest commandment?” The Pharisees and scribes were used to arguing all the time over this question. For them, it was more important to have the right theology, the right observances, and the right places of honor, than it was to make sure the people really knew and followed the Lord.
When they asked these types of questions, it was usually with ulterior motives. They would come with the appearance of wanting to learn and be seen as humble, but in reality, they were full of pride, looking for an opportunity to rebuff the other person and show off their “superior” understanding of the topic.
This made Jesus’ answer very astounding to all who heard Him speak. Jesus said, “The most important is, ‘Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-30
Jesus simply pointed the people to God and said, “Give your all to Him first.” and then, knowing that a relationship with the Father changes how we live, He then said, “After that, love each other.”
We can often get things out of whack. We can get our priorities out of order, and instead of Loving God first, we tend to love lesser things first. Then the selfishness of the flesh creeps in, and we don’t love others but start to treat others in self-seeking ways.
This past Sunday, we saw in Mark 9 how the disciples got things out of whack and started arguing about who was the greatest. They were not loving God with all they had, they were loving their zeal for loving God and placing themselves over others by how much better they “loved” God than their neighbor did.
Jesus corrected them using the illustration of a child and how God received those of little faith and loved them. And if God loved the disciples with great care and nurturing as we care and nurture a child, they should in turn, care for and nurture others.
When we give God our all, our all changes and begins to reflect His heart for others. That’s why we looked at just a handful of the one another statements in the Bible. These are fulfilled when we submit our lives to God and are filled with the Spirit. It is the power of God that helps us to love one another as we should.
This week ask yourself, “Am I giving my all to God in all the areas of my life? Am I loving others the way I should because I am giving my all to God?” Jesus is more interested in a relationship with you than in your performance before others. Love God, love people a very popular phrase with a profound meaning.
Prayer
Lord, Help us to surrender our lives completely to you. May we release those areas we want to control and keep to ourselves. And as we surrender, will you transform and change us so that we may reflect Christ to those around us as we learn to love them as we ourselves have been loved.
