Tony Brown preached from Mark 12:28-31 last night on the greatest commandment. ‘ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” ‘
Loving God with all we have is the most important thing we can do with our lives. Love has to be outward, not inward-looking and selfish. God, who is love, demonstrates this to us, since His love reaches out to us (Rom 5:6-8 demonstrates the unselfishness of God’s love for us.) We need to make God the centre of our lives, which we accomplish through obedience, since Jesus told us that if we loved Him, we would obey His commands.
Loving our neighbour as ourselves is only possible when we know who we are and are secure in our own identity in Christ. The Fall of man, narrated in Genesis 3, is more than a mere fable; it was an attack on the God-given identity and destiny of mankind. If we are unsure of our identity in God, we often struggle with insecurity and become focussed on comparing ourselves with others instead of being free to be who we are in God. Inferiority and envy often grow within us as believe other people’s evaluations of us rather than what God says about us. The truth of God’s Word, however, has the power to set us free. We need to meditate on His truth: we are made in His image (Gen 1:27), created by God and unique (Ps 139:13-14), the apple of God’s eye (Deut 32:10), loved and precious to God (John 3:16).
Loving our neighbour with God’s love, as we are commanded to do, transforms our society. Jesus told us to ‘love one another’ (John 15:12-13). Our purpose in life is to become more like Christ so we may reflect the love of God to a dying world. Matthew 7:12, often called the ‘Golden Rule’, teaches us to treat others in the way we would like them to treat us, to spend time with people, to respect others, to accept them and love them (just as Sue Ryder did when caring for the Polish refugees). We reap what we sow: if we sow love, then we will reap love.
Jesus clearly taught us (especially in the Parable of the Good Samaritan) that everyone is our neighbour. We are to love our family, our friends, our colleagues, our literal neighbours. Lev 19:18 tells us “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself.” Unforgiveness will hinder our walk with God and will result in action. It is an obstacle to God’s love, against God’s will and blocks His forgiveness to us, as Matt 6:14-15 makes clear. We insult God when we refuse to forgive, for the Cross shows us the measure of God’s forgiveness and helps us also to see that there is no sin too big for us to forgive.
Forgiveness and gratitude go hand in hand. We have been forgiven so much that we have much to be grateful for. Let’s understand that our relationship with God, with ourselves and with others are all connected and let’s walk in forgiveness and gratitude so that we may love as God loves.