The covenant God made with His people in the Old Testament required all to keep the law. Then when God’s people fell short and could not keep the law, the high Priest was required to offer sacrifices for the people’s sin, year after year. But now we live by the new covenant, in which Jesus Christ, our high Priest, gave His Life’s blood to be the sacrifice for our sins once and for all – the Just for the unjust. Because of the Beloved Jesus, we are completely accepted by a Holy God! When one of the religious Sadducees, tried to test Jesus by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest”? Jesus answered him, “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you. This is the great and supreme commandment. And the second is like it in importance: You must love your friend in the same way you love yourself. Contained within these commandments to love you will find all the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.” In the New Testament we are commanded not to walk by law, but to walk in His Love. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our being- our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as [we do] ourselves. God’s love living within us, through the Holy Spirit, does no wrong to one’s neighbor [it never hurts anybody] it fulfills and meets all the requirements of the law. Jesus taught, that these two commandments sum up and upon them (Love) depends all the Law. Our awesome God who loves us, and created the whole universe desires that we love Him back! But we cannot reach this high calling without His help. First, we must accept Jesus’ sacrificial crucifixion for our sins, surrender our lives, and receive the Holy Spirit to live and abide inside our hearts. Because love is not forceful, God will never force us to love Him as if we were robots. If He did, our response wouldn’t be true love. We have to make the choice to receive the love God has bestowed upon us through Jesu Christ- or we can choose not to receive His love.
When we choose to accept Jesus’ love, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside our hearts, and at that point, we have the power to grow in God’s love- towards Him, ourselves, and others. As we mature spiritually, and continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit , the love we have for God, ourselves, and others will grow, and we will have the capacity to receive more of His love. Because of Christ, we have the power to achieve, attain, and accomplish this high calling on our lives to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor, as you love yourself”.
“He replied to him, ‘You shall love the Lord you God with all you heart and with all your soul and with all your mind [intellect]. This is the great [most important, principal] and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself. These two commandments “sum up and upon them depend all the Law and the Prophets”
Matthew 22: 37-40.
