From Livestream
by Brother Josh Linton on February 19, 2017
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:28–31, KJV).
If there is ever a time to love people, it’s right now—where we live, where we work, where we go to school, and wherever we go. But, we must love others God’s way. It’s easy to say that we “love someone,” but our actions don’t show it. People can tell when we say one thing but our hearts and eyes show something else.
It’s critical we don’t judge people first before we choose to love them. God wants us to be kind to, love, and to prefer one another (Romans 12:10). God doesn’t qualify who we should be kind to, love, and to prefer. His love doesn’t come with conditions! God doesn’t want us to become the “moral police,” but just to extend love (His love) to others. We should do what God commands us—love others!
We are to put all others first in our lives and love them. We need to sacrifice for all other people—this is how we show them love. If we love others the way God wants us to love them, He will take care of everything in our life; we won’t have to worry about it. And, the love we show to others will continue to be reciprocated to others—it’s a continuous cycle. We cannot do the bare minimum in our love for others; go above and beyond.
It’s easy for us to love within the church, but we have difficulty when we get out into the world (Matthew 5:42–47). We must pray and love people outside of our “comfort zone:” those in the world, our enemies, and anyone that we come in contact with. Our purpose in life is to allow the light and love of Jesus emulate from us to everyone else. This is how the world will know that we’re His disciples—how we love one another (John 12:34–35). Today, let’s allow the love of Jesus be shed abroad in our hearts to everyone we come in contact with!
