What does Jesus say are the two greatest commandments?
First, we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And second, we are to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Such a love for God is demanding. It goes far beyond loving a sport, some television show, or some activity. We might love going to church, and miss it when we can’t go. But attending church might be a love for the beautiful building, or it can be a love for the singing and relationships. It might even be intellectual or political. No, the love of God is a deep and far more intense love, the kind of love we must be willing to give up our lives for. Ultimately, Jesus gave up his life for us by being crucified on the cross to save us—to save the whole world.
How do we love your neighbor as our self? First, who are our neighbors? Are they the close friends that live around us or that we share fleeting feelings with on social media? Are they the people we meet at church and stand next to when we sing the songs of worship and praise? Are they our relatives? Well, yes, they are, but our neighbors also include people we have no connection with. They are from around the corner and from around the world. They include people of every color, language, and culture. They are our neighbors. We are told to love them as ourselves. If they are in need, we are to respond to their need as we would our close friends.
Help! How is that possible? But that is loving the neighborhood of the world God created, doing what we can when people are suffering or in crisis. Currently, our world is facing two major crises that we need to respond to in Christian love.
Black Lives Matter—We must recognize that all people are created equal and that everyone should have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life. Too often people of color have been isolated from the opportunities to succeed in life, and they have been treated unjustly. We need to recognize that they are our neighbors who we are told to love as we love ourselves.
Covid-19—We also must confront the Covid-19 crisis with care for each other by wearing face masks when meeting together, and we need to keep our social distance. That sounds like a strange way to love those around us, but such a crisis challenges us to break the norms. Love your neighbor by keeping your social distance from them and wearing a face mask.
May God bless you as you seek to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and as you love your neighbors as yourself.
_____________________________________________
If you have not yet read, Book Pursued, the first book in the series, it is a suspense thriller that will give you a riveting read during these challenging times. It is available on Amazon as both a paperback and an e-book for Kindle. It helps to search under my name to find the book. The paperback is also available from Itasca Books, a local book warehouse. Identity Confused is days away from being ready to send to my publisher.