Daily Java: Jesus said, “'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.” (Matthew 22:37-39).
We worry so much about doing stuff when doing stuff is not the requirement. The requirement is living our lives so that everyone can see our love, both for God and for others. Love really is the answer.
That sounds so simplistic. Like the answer a beauty contestant gives. “My dream is everyone in the world loving each other.” Then she smiles and waves.
But it is true, the Beatles not withstanding. All you need is love. Of course, there has to be a definition of what love is. Love is not rampant eroticism, nor is it the tolerance of whatever someone else wants to do whether you like it or not.
Love is not simply acceptance. There is more to it than that.
When you love your kids and they want to eat nothing but cake, you do not let them do so if you are a good parent. You make sure they have a balanced diet because you love them and want them to grow up right.
If you love your wife, you don’t run around on her, nor do you hurt her. Her happiness is greater than yours. Even if it puts you out, she is first.
That is love in life. Your wife, your kids, others are more important than you are.
Jesus showed his love by dying for us. 1 John 3:16 says This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
His love was sacrificial, so ours has to be sacrificial also if we claim to be his disciples. That is the basis of his love: giving himself to us.
The whole Bible is based on the love of God for people that did not always (in fact rarely) loved him back.
That is the law, the Royal Law as James called it. when we do that, we have done the stuff.
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