Yesterday we looked at the most important commandment and today we continue in the middle of that discussion. The second is to love your neighbour as ourselves. If we love God with everything that we have and put him first, the natural outworking of this is the love of others. In his first letter, John even writes that "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.” It would be completely incoherent, inconsistent, and hypocritical for me to say that I am a Christian and love God, yet not even try to love my neighbour. This is the same for all who follow Christ.

Unfortunately throughout history, there have been some terrible examples who claim to follow Christ yet don’t show love to their neighbours. On the other hand, there have been great examples of people’s faith leading them to extraordinary actions such as the early Christians saving babies from the rubbish heap, to the abolition of the slave trade. But the acts of love don’t always have to be huge. It could be as simple as being consistently generous and gracious to those on our frontlines. It’s a command which should shape the whole of our lives. We do this because it’s commanded of us, but also because even while we were his enemies, while our backs were turned to him, Jesus still loved us and died for us to save us. Therefore, we should love one another and our neighbours.

The scribe seemed to be satisfied with the answer that Jesus provided! To be completely devoted to God and to love our neighbour is far more important than rituals, rights, and regulations. To live with Jesus as king is the most important thing of all. MC

Questions

Prayer

Heavenly Father, as we live our lives, please shape the affections and desires of our hearts to love you more deeply and to love our neighbour more consistently, that they may see our love for them, and your love for us. In Jesus’ name, Amen