Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39)
Are you amazed by the words of Jesus? Our inclination might be to change his words to suit our purpose—rather than loving my neighbor, I may want to change my neighbor. His words are sometimes the complete opposite of the way I would think in a given situation.
But I am thankful that the words Jesus speaks are not like our own. They challenge us to think of others ahead of ourselves, to lay down our assumptions and take action.
If we rarely see the person living next door, does that mean we are off the hook? I don’t think so.
I believe that the second commandment, to love our neighbor as ourselves, hinges on the first one. If we try to love others with our limited, conditional love, there is a good chance we will fail. However, if we first love the Lord our God with all that is within us, we can then see the beauty of God’s image in others. My neighbor is everywhere.
The words of Jesus can change our entire perspective on life. If we ingest them and practice them, we can be changed. Practice makes perfect—anything we want to become good at requires repetition. Can we set our hearts to learn more about the Lord and fall in love with him daily? As we love him, our desire will be to please him. He would love for us to take his words to heart. A daily practice of reading his words can change our lives.
Living with and among others can be tough. I think that is why Jesus knew that we needed to be reminded to always take the high road. His words can lead us there. If you want to stay connected to him and start a life-changing journey, join us for our 30 Days of Prayer: Jesus Speaks.
God bless you!
