The Most Important Commandment
“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 12:30-31
Unconditional love from God that fills our hearts, is the most important command because it makes all other commands become natural and desirable. What motivated Jesus to tell people about eternal life, and die on the cross for our sins; it was a heart of love for the Father and a heart of love for us.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29) All those who accept Christ as their Lord and savior, are predestined to conform to the image of his Son. What characteristic do we need to conform to image of Jesus? It’s a heart of love, because that motivated Jesus in everything he did, and that is what motivates us to serve Christ.
“But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” (1 John 4:20-21) We show our love to God by our love for people, because everyone is created in the image of God. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) We love everyone including our enemies, because many people in this word are deceived by Satan.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) Our enemy is Satan, he feeds the world with lies and deception, and turns many people evil. We pray for everyone, and we tell the world how overcome Satan’s temptations.
We fight Satan’s evil with God’s love, because Satan hates love. God is love and how can we reflect Christ without a heart of love? With a true heart of love, we receive from God, gives us great peace that transcends understanding. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:7) This verse reveals the true power of peace from God.
A heart of love comes from serving Christ, telling people about salvation in Christ, and how Christ died for our sins. The more we serve Christ, the more love God puts in our hearts. Therefore, God’s love in our hearts can increase to our last breath.
Today reflect God’s love to others, and beware of Satan trying to tempt you be angry at people, when our true enemy is Satan.
Prayer: Lord, fill my heart everyday with your divine love, and keep Satan for making me angry. Give me patience in everything I do. In Jesus name, Amen