The bottom line

A lawyer once asked Jesus which of all commandments was the most important one. Jesus answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. The second most important is similar: ‘Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.’ All the other commandments …are fulfilled if you obey them. Keep only these and you will find that you are obeying all the others.” Matt 22:37-40 TLB

Loving God, loving others and loving ourselves—love is being in right relationship. Our relationships are based on value. We relate to God first because He is the being in the universe with most value, because He is worthy of our love, adoration and obedience.

The second part of the commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves (not instead of ourselves), is just as important because Jesus also told us that we cannot love God and hate our brother. This reflects that all human beings are valued because they are created in the image of God. God wants to enjoy relationship with each of us and who wants us to enjoy relationship, (not just surviving, tolerating or getting along) with each other.

If we love God but not our neighbor, we become mystics. If on the other hand we love our neighbor but leave out loving God, we are humanists.

Dean Sherman, the author of “Love, Sex and Relationships” says: “I’d like to suggest that every problem in the world is a problem of wrong relationship, where we are not loving God, others, and ourselves”. If that is the case and we don’t relate well to just one person, then we are part of the problem. Therefore, relationships must become our top priority?

The bottom line is that when we learn to relate right with each other, when we honor, serve and embrace one another, we are, in fact, honoring and serving God. It is only then that our witnessing for Jesus will be effective. Jesus says: “All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”