The Greatest Commandments and the Love of God!

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:30-31 NIV

Don’t we wish to live in the peace of God in Jesus Christ with everyone else all day long and forever with no doubts, arguments and quarrels? I certainly do as I am a “people-person” and living as a child of God is so natural to me. If I am God, I certainly would put the kingdom of God in the world so everyone is able to marvel at God and fear Him all the time. However, I guess that this would mean that people do not have to be His workmanship and His light to the world. In other words, they do not have to be evangelise Jesus Christ and be ambassadors of Him around the world. Often, evangelising Him and tell about Him to people around us, especially to non-believers, sounds quite easy to me, but it is quite hard thing for me to do except in writing. Because of this, I thank the Lord for giving me a spiritual gift that can evangelise about Him in writing and for a theological mind-set.

Whether we have found our spiritual gift or not, it is necessary to put God as our first priority. The main reasons for this probably are that He is our heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:4-6) as well as the Creator (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 24:1). God is the Creator because He has created us in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) and the rest of the world. Why, then, there is such evil around the world? I think this is probably because of our selfishness. Since the first man of God and a man whom God has created sinned by eating the fruit in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-3:19), the sin has naturally came into the world as we become more independent and do not rely on God for everything. This does not mean that we should rely on Him for everything and do no works. Because of the sin that causes us selfishness, God had to send His only beloved Son, Jesus Christ, as an image of Himself into the world (John 1:14) to crucify Himself for our sins (Colossians 2:13-15). Moreover, since sin is totally destroyed by His crucifixion, God has given us victory by giving us eternal life through faith in Him (Hebrews 2:14-15). “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) In addition to this, Jesus has declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26) Furthermore, as James 2:14-26 talks about faith and deeds in Christ Jesus, we should these and, even, combine these as one. Therefore, we should become one of the children that Jesus talks about in Matthew 19:13-15, due to the fact that children generally obey their parents in everything and listen to them, in order to learn new things. Nevertheless, if we do not put God as our first priority, then it would probably become religious and we probably consider that we have to put our spiritual garment and clothes on for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. We may, even, become more selfish and think ‘if I have spear time, I am going to serve God.’ Secondly, God is our heavenly Father. Not only He has created in the image of God, but He also predestined us to be His adopted children from the beginning of time (Ephesians 1:4-6). Thus, whoever accepts Christ as their Lord and Savior, they automatically become children of God (John 1:12-13). As for me, because of my intimate relationship with God as my heavenly Father, my mind has been literally going blank and empty when a distorted view of God comes along. Colossians 1:15-23 has helped and encouraged me to believe that God is our Creator and devote my life to Jesus Christ and to worship Him all the time. I also love Romans 8:1-17 because these Bible verses talk about eternal life and that we are created to be His children of God because of Christ’s crucifixion and the resurrection.

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:6)

Next, it is necessary to love ourselves before loving others through Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we become disoriented and lose joy of living life through Him. Because of this, it is far better for us to love God first, love ourselves as the children of God second, and then loving others third, through Him. The main reason for this is that we cannot spread the love of God effectively if we do not love Him intimately, for the love of God comes through Him. In addition, without loving ourselves as the children of God (Psalm 139:13-14) before others, it is quite challenging to love others intimately in Christ because it brings us no real meaning and sense into us and we become distracted of finding the reason that God has created us in the first place. Although some of the Bible verses says that we ought to think others more highly than others, such as Philippians 2:3-4 and Romans 12:3, it is essential to love ourselves before others. loving ourselves allows us to love others more effectively and more intimately through Christ, for the love of God just flow through as we are enjoying Him and have satisfaction in Him (1 John 4:7-21). I pray Ephesians 3:14-21 over whoever reads this devotional of mine.