By Gregg Woodall
Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Jesus described the three “loves” we are all commanded to have. First, we love God, then we love others, and we are also to love ourselves. On these three loves hangs all the world. Without these three loves life becomes unbearable and futile.
God’s people are to be known for our love. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
Loving God is a way of life. It is a devoted commitment that consumes our very existence. Paul captured the essence of this when he wrote, “For me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). For Paul, life had no meaning apart from serving God through Jesus Christ.
Concerning loving others, Paul commanded that we are to “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:3-4).
Loving ourselves is very necessary. If we do not have love for self, it would be unreasonable to require that we love our neighbor as ourselves. Some may feel they have little personal value because they were dealt many trials and struggles in life. Others have been made to feel less than whole due to their racial, economic, or social status. These sorts of things haunt the minds of troubled souls.
We need to help each other see that we all have value regardless of our past circumstances. Jesus proclaimed that every soul has value. It is worth more than the whole world (Matt. 16:26). Christ died for every person (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9). Would he have given his life for those who have no value?
By daily living out the commandment of Christ to love God, love others, and love yourself we can show the world the wonderful blessings of being a Christian.