“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “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 22:36-40

There is a lot of talk about the idea of love in our culture today. When I think of how often we use the word “love” to describe how we feel about a particular food or sports team it seems to kind of cheapen the word, what do you think?

In the passage above we read that God’s greatest commandment is summed up in a single verse from the Old Testament-

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:5

That kind of love speaks to honor and reverence, devotion, and obedience to our Creator. To love the Lord with every aspect of our lives is the key and then it should and will be reflected in the next command – “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

How? Instead of focusing inward on our needs and desires, we are to look upward to God and then outward to the people around us.

Love isn’t just a word we say, it is a life we are called to live.