Love God and Love People. We see this saying a lot in the Christian world. We see it on t-shirts, tote bags, coffee mugs, and lots of other places. In the passages we read today, Matthew 22:34-40 and Mark 12:28-34, we see how to live out this saying.
First, we have to set the context. In Matthew 22:15, the Pharisees wanted to “entrap [Jesus] with his own words.” They thought they could accomplish this through the question, “what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus’ answer was clear and simple. He replied that the first and greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. He said the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. Here we see it. Love God and love people.
It is easy to wear a t-shirt that says, “Love God and Love People,” but to live those two things out is anything but easy. It is a high calling. God is calling us to something that we cannot do in our own strength. We need Him to help us to do these things.
Love God
To love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind takes daily coming before the Lord and asking Him to help you love Him in these ways. It means that your heart is not divided. It is worshiping God alone and ridding yourself of idols. To love Him with all your soul means finding satisfaction in Him. It’s knowing that other things cannot fill you know matter how much they claim to do so. To love Him with all your mind means your mind is set on Him and on doing what He tells you to do. This is not an exhaustive list of what each of these look like. It can be easy to read this and think that it is a to-do list. But in order to truly love God with all of your being, you need the Lord to empower you.
Love People
The second command is to love your neighbor as yourself. Again, this is something you cannot do by yourself. As the Lord helps you to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind, the overflow of that is to love your neighbor as yourself.
The question that naturally flows from this command is, “Who is my neighbor?” The word neighbor in Matthew 22:39 means any person with whom we live or whom we have the chance to meet. So when we think of loving our neighbor, we have to think of those we live with whether it be our roommates, husbands, kids, or anyone we meet.
The person that lives next door? Yes. The co-worker who you have nothing in common with? Yes. The friend who has completely opposite political view than you? Yes. The cashier at the grocery store? Yes. When we take an all-encompassing view of who our neighbor is, it quickly becomes clear that we cannot love our neighbor as ourselves in our own strength.
Living a Life of Love
What are ways that you can grow this week in loving Him with everything you are and loving your neighbor as yourself? Some questions to think through as you seek to grow in these areas: What idols am I allowing in my life, or what am I worshiping other than God alone? What am I looking towards to satisfy me other than the Lord (a relationship, social media, alcohol, exercise, etc.)? What do I let my mind meditate on? Who do you need to love like you love yourself?
May these questions and the words of Christ motivate us to love God greatly with all of our lives, not out of duty but out of response to the love we’ve received in Christ.
