Mark 12: 28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus began the answer to this question in a way with which his questioner was very familiar. Loving God above all was a concept well known to Jewish thought. But loving your neighbor as yourself was something new. Jesus was all about love. He lived it in his incarnation; He made it eternal by His death on a cross. In His answer he ties together love of God and neighbor. He advises that there is no commandment greater than these, the two together. Love of God is our source, played out daily in our love for each other. It forms the basis of His church. Love, acted out between men, is the very sign of discipleship. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35.
When we consider the church, how it should operate and how it must be identified, we must begin with love. Not just a spiritual cloudy kind of love, but a love acted out in the real world between men.
If you’re not loving, you’re not His and you’re not His church.
Love and be blessed.
Nick
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