Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)
"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Jesus was asked which commandment was the greatest. Out of hundreds of laws, He gave two. Love God. Love people. Everything else hangs on these.
All your serving. All your sacrifice. All your spiritual disciplines. They are only as good as the love behind them. You can serve without love and it means nothing. You can give without love and it profits nothing. Love is not one item on the list — it is the list.
Fifty-one weeks of learning to shut up and serve. It all comes back to this: love God with everything you have. And love the person in front of you the same way you want to be loved. That's it. That's the whole thing.
Lord, let everything I do flow from love — love for You and love for people. Strip away everything that is not rooted in that. Amen.
I block the lie that serving is about performance or obligation. Everything I do flows from love — love for God and love for the person in front of me.
1 John 4:11 (NIV)
"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
- 1
Is your serving flowing from love — or from obligation, guilt, or a desire to be seen?
- 2
Who is the "neighbor" right in front of you right now who needs to be loved the way you want to be loved?