Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39 (NKJV)
In Matthew 22, Jesus shared the two greatest commandments in the Bible. Every other commandment, principle and lesson in the Bible hinges on these two: love God and love others.
When you love God and love others, you can build great relationships. Ideally, these two loves also keep you from hurting others. This is why Jesus called these commandments the greatest of all. If you keep these two, you keep them all.
But have you ever thought about what Jesus meant when He said to love each other? Was He telling us to have warm, fuzzy feelings inside when we think of the people around us? Is this realistic?
Actually, Jesus was talking about so much more than emotions. You may not have warm, fuzzy feelings for your neighbour with the dog that barks all night, but you can still love him. You see, love is an action.
Jesus wants you to love through your actions. First John 3:18 says, “Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions” (NLT).
Love can be active in many ways. It’s shown in acts of kindness, encouraging words and caring touch. Over the next few days we will be discussing an often forgotten way to show love: in how we honour those around us.
Honour has a powerful effect on how you experience your relationships. Think of what you respect about at least one person in your life, and find a way to express it today.