Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. ’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40
Recently I was thumbing through the pages of my Bible and thinking about how many pages were in it. The particular Bible I was using was about 1,500 pages and had double columns on each page. I’ve read through the entire Bible multiple times and know that it is quite the task! It is a long book in length not to mention its depth of meaning.
Yet isn’t it amazing that Jesus can essentially sum it up in a few brief words? “Love God and love people.” It’s not that there aren’t more things for us to know to help us navigate through this often complex and convoluted world, but Jesus says the heart of the matter is really this: Love God and love people. For God, everything really comes down to that.
The Apostle Paul took this to heart and expressed this concept frequently in his Spirit inspired writings. For example, he writes in Romans 13:9-10, “These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”
Furthermore, he said in 1 Corinthians 13, “If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.”
How did Paul cultivate a sharpened focus and heart so full of the love of God? Paul was a man who frequently, “fell to his knees and prayed… for his roots to grow down into God’s love and keep him strong… that he would have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love is… that he would experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.” (See Ephesians 3:14-19)
There is a refreshing simplicity, clarity and sharpening of focus that comes with this truth. Sometimes it feels like this world can pull you in 1,000 different directions. Sometimes we can search for wisdom, think deeply, read books, and still be left scratching our heads. Isn’t it great that amidst all the words, noise, and thoughts, Jesus says, “Let Me clear it up for you: Love God and love people.” If our only goal in life were simply that, it would greatly please the heart of God. It isn't something we ever graduate or grow out of, but only deepen in. With the importance of this in mind, like Paul, I should give more focused prayer to this all-encompassing truth each and every day: “Lord God Almighty, help me to truly know Your love for me, to love You back, and to love others as You do.”