"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ... 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)
In answering a question asked by a scribe as to which of God's commandments is the greatest, Jesus said: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ... 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31). By this statement, Jesus makes the point that man's relationship must be in two dimensions: his relationship with God, and his relationship with other people.
On the matter of loving God, He, in one of the sessions with the apostles just before His arrest and death, states how love for God is manifested: "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them." (John 14:21). He repeats this statement more than once. Then, as regards loving other people, apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, articulates how we can recognise such love.
Examples are always the most effective way of driving understanding. In this series of studies, we will be examining cases of where love for God and where love for other people are manifested. The intent is for us to subject what we deem to be our love for God and our love for other people to the attributes demonstrated in these examples. Such self-examination may well draw our attention to aspects of our love for God and for others that need attention so we can be what God wants us to be.
QUARTERLY THEMES
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ... 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.(Proverbs 9:10)
Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! (Luke 12:24)
There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12)
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:21)
"…These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." (Acts 17:6 NKJV)
So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. (Ezekiel 34:5)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, (2 Timothy 3:16)
