JESUS GIVES US THE TWO FOUNDATIONAL COMMANDMENTS WE MUST OBEY

JESUS GIVES US THE TWO FOUNDATIONAL COMMANDMENTS WE MUST OBEY

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got
together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this
question:
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:34-40)

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(1 John 4:8)

God is love and Jesus has told us to love Him, and to love others.
That sounds pretty simple, but it requires a lot from us, doesn’t it?
In order for us to love God and love others we need to:
    – Exchange selfishness for selflessness.
    – Exchange self-centeredness for a genuine concern for others.
    – Increase our patience.
    – Develop a stronger self-control.
    – Reduce our anger.
    – Increase our tolerance.
    – Learn to listen more than we talk (2 ears & 1 mouth).
    – Look for opportunities to help and encourage others.
    – Develop a willingness to sacrifice our time for the benefit of others.
    – Increase our prayer time for others.
    – Develop a habit of telling others that we are praying for them, then pray
       sincerely and faithfully (sometimes others can be encouraged by simply
       knowing that someone is praying for them).
    – Increase our kindness and attention to others.
    – Increase our righteousness (with God’s help, purge any unrighteousness).
    – Practice doing what’s right (even if it is different than what we want to do).
    – Ask God to sanctify us and invite the Holy Spirit into our life.
    – Discover the spiritual gift God gave us when He saved us; then use it.
    – Carefully examine our habits and eliminate any that are not pleasing to God.
    – Admit to God that we need (and want) His help to become a more loving person.
    – Confess our sins, ask God for His forgiveness, and commit to living for Him.
    – Increase our bible reading and learn to fully enjoy worshipping the Lord.
    – Eliminate any tendencies to:
          – Brag
          – Be rude, unkind, and ignore others.
          – Chase after temptations and sin.
          – Please self, instead of pleasing God.
          – Gossip.
     – Develop an understanding of how important it is for others to feel loved.

We could probably add many more areas of our life that we should examine,
but this list reminds us that to really love in the manner God wants us to
love, we need to make some changes. It is not a list of changes that we can
‘wink at’ and think. “That would be nice”, but it is a list that we take seriously
and a roadmap for us to follow if we really want to obey the command of Jesus
to love God, and love others.

Is it something that we can accomplish? In our own strength, probably not.
However, if we pour our heart out to God, express our sincere desire to
become the person He wants us to be, and ask for His help, we know that
anything is possible. God would not command us to become who He wants
us to be and then refuse to help us. That wouldn’t be a God who is identified
as love, would it?

As you may know, God impressed on me this year that we need to learn more
about Love and He has provided me with a series of 64 brief devotionals to help
us understand what He wants us to know about Love. Two of these devotionals
have already been published through social media and distributed to several
large email distribution groups.

Each one of them will also be available on the Blog I have created for storing
God’s devotionals (including these on Love). Pray about it and consider joining
the rest of us in reading what God has provided. Here are the links for the first
two:

https://utvolwoody.com/2024/10/08/devotional-series-on-love-part-01/

https://utvolwoody.com/2024/10/15/devotional-series-on-love-part-02/