In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we read of an encounter that Jesus had with a Jewish expert in the Law, who asked Him the question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied by saying to him: “‘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’” (Matthew 22:35–40 NIV).
The commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind that Jesus quotes here is found in Deuteronomy 6:5, which summarizes the concept of total devotion to God. The account of this incident in the Gospels of Mark and Luke include another dimension: loving the Lord with all our strength. Mark’s Gospel goes on to conclude, “There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30–31).
We see by these accounts that love for God and love for others—the greatest of all commandments—are meant to orient our lives, our priorities, our relationships, our decisions, and our actions. A closer look at each of these two commandments can help us to grow in our understanding of these cornerstones of our faith.
Love for God
As Christians, we are called to love God with all our being—heart, soul, mind, and strength—and to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). We have the privilege of being called into a close personal relationship with God, who is Himself relational. The Bible says that “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is a call for us to respond with a wholehearted love-Him-with-everything-you’ve-got love.
We see God’s desire for relationship with His human creations throughout the Bible, from the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelation. In Genesis, we learn that the beautiful relationship God had with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was damaged because of their choice to disobey Him and sin, which resulted in the Fall (Genesis 3:1–19). God is holy, so after sin came into the world, He could no longer have that same personal relationship with humans.
In His great love for humanity, God had a plan to repair the relationship that sin had ruptured and bring us back into relationship with Himself. So great was His love for every person He ever created that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to sacrificially lay down His life through His death on the cross in order to bridge the gap between Himself and humanity (John 3:16).
To convey His deep love for us, God used language and imagery in the Bible which speaks of us as being married to Him. He said, “Your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is His name” (Isaiah 54:5), and “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” (Isaiah 62:5). These marital metaphors describe the union of heart, mind, and spirit that He desires to have with each of us. We, in turn, are called to love Him with all our being and to place Him at the center of our lives.
Our love for God and our gratefulness for the sacrifice Jesus made for our eternal salvation should motivate us to draw close to Him (James 4:8) and to focus on strengthening our relationship with Him. Some of the ways we do this is by dedicating time to communicate with Him through prayer, praise, and worship, diligently reading and studying His Word, and striving to pattern our lives according to His will and the principles of His Word. As Christians, we seek to grow in our love for Him—with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Love for your neighbor
The commandment to love your neighbor as yourself originates in the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18. In the Gospel of Luke, we read that after hearing Jesus proclaim love for our neighbor as one of the greatest commandments, a lawyer challenged Him with the question, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus went on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan to emphatically illustrate that loving our neighbor extends far beyond our friends and local community to strangers and foreigners, and means showing compassion and care to those in need (Luke 10:25–35).
The foundation for us as Christians for loving our neighbors is the understanding that every person is precious to God, regardless of age, ethnicity, gender, nationality, economic status, religious belief, political affiliation, or any other difference. God loves everyone. He is gracious and full of compassion and unfailing love; He is good to all (Psalm 145:8–9).
We in turn are called to view each person He has created through His eyes of love, which means that we will look at others without bias, prejudice, criticism, or preconceived opinions or stereotypes. God’s unconditional love knows no boundaries of status, race, or creed, and should guide our attitudes toward others. Our commission as His followers is to show the same love to others that Jesus showed to us.
Jesus set the bar for loving others even higher in the Sermon on the Mount when He instructed His followers to love their enemies (Matthew 5:43–45). Jesus went on to say, “If you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same” (Luke 6:33). Jesus makes the point that if our love motivates us to only do good to those who can do good to us in return, then it is no different from the love that most people show.
Jesus is calling us to love in ways that surpass the natural love and kindness that people have for one another. He is calling us to a love that is greater and extraordinary. The love Jesus proclaimed and demonstrated is the kind of love that we, who have been forgiven for our sins, are meant to live—a love that is kind, generous, merciful, sacrificial, and forgiving. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
No one is excluded from God’s command to us to love others—no matter where they are at in life or how distant they may be from Him. We don’t have to like or agree with every person’s belief system, lifestyle, or choices. They may live without regard to God’s moral standards or live lives of grave sin, but no matter what their current state may be, God loves them, and we are to love them. Scripture teaches that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God, that love is of God, and God is love (1 John 4:7–8).
The commandments to love God and our neighbors are cornerstones of our discipleship. As Christians, we are first called to love God with everything in us and place Him at the center of our lives, decisions, and actions. The study of His Word provides guidance in our decisions and walk with God and helps us to grow in our faith. Our love for Christ—who gave His life for us—compels us to love and worship Him fervently with all our hearts, and to cultivate a close relationship with Him.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to imitate the example He set for us of love, compassion, and mercy for others, which is also central to our witness to those who have not yet come to a saving knowledge of Him. Let’s make a commitment to every day and in every way possible love our neighbors and to be living examples of God’s love to the people He places in our path.
May the love of Christ compel us in everything we do “because we are convinced … that he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them” (2 Corinthians 5:14–15 NIV).