One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question:
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
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 neighbour as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
Matthew 22:35-40 NLT
Love God. Love your neighbour as yourself.
These are the two commandments God gave us to live in faithful obedience to Him. But there are spiritual forces that seek to deter us; therefore, we must be active and intentional in our love for God and for others. And it starts with the choices we make.
LOVE YOURSELF
In the world we live in today, there are extremes in people’s view of themselves; we can either think about ourselves too much, or we can think the absolute worst of ourselves. We have to find that ‘in-between’, and that involves finding our identity in God. We have to look to God and say, ‘God, I am who You say I am.’ and hold onto that.
Don’t beat yourself up, but don’t boast in yourself. When we boast, we boast in God (1 Corinthians 1:31). And God knows us inside and out.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it.
Psalm 139:13-14 NLT
God’s workmanship is marvellous. You are a part of His workmanship! God created you with a purpose; He sees the potential in you and speaks to the potential in you. The enemy speaks to your past, and will try to pull you back with your fears and insecurities. But God speaks to your future, and to where He is taking you next. God created you! He knows you more than you will ever know yourself. He knows what He can do in you and through you.
As you grow in your faith, keep seeking God. He has given the gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who believe in Him, so that you can grow in love and wisdom, and produce the fruit of the Spirit, which is God’s nature (Galatians 5:22-23). Rely on God. Stand firm the fact that you are who God says you are. The past does not define you, and you can look forward to where God is leading you.
Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit before He began His ministry on earth. There, He was tempted by Satan, and the very first thing that Satan said was, “If you are the Son of God…” (Matthew 4:3). The enemy uses phrases like this to discourage and sow seeds of doubt: ‘If you really are the child of God, why isn’t God doing … in your life? …why aren’t you doing what they are doing?” These are attempts to stop you from embracing who God says you are, and who God wants you to be. And in all this, God has made you a leader. You may lead a group of people, but everybody leads at least one person – themselves. You decide whether you follow God. God has given us free will, so you can choose to follow Him. Make the decision to ask God to reveal who He made you to be, in humility.
Humility isn’t beating yourself up about the things you cannot do; humility is acknowledging that we cannot do things in our own strength. Humility is acknowledging that we need God in our lives. Humility is acknowledging that we are where we are because of God. Humility is being known for who you are and whose you are. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are now children of God. We have restored relationship with the Father.
When you repent and accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you are a child of God; and you can stand firm in that! Don’t underestimate or overestimate yourself, but be who God intended you to be. The world might tell you that you are not doing enough; silence those voices and keep walking in faithful obedience to God. Keep going where God leads. Do what God tells you to do. Surrender to Him and let Him help you grow. God speaks to the potential in you, and He loves you. You are His child and He is your Heavenly Father.
Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:2
God’s will for you is good and pleasing and perfect. Don’t let the world define you. Don’t let what you do define you.
Consider this Jesus parable that Jesus taught:
11 To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. 12 The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.
13 “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. 14 About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. 15 He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. 16 The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.
17 “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.’
“But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the fields working. When he returned home, he heard music and dancing in the house, and he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother is back,’ he was told, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf. We are celebrating because of his safe return.’
“The older brother was angry and wouldn’t go in. His father came out and begged him, but he replied, ‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to. And in all that time you never gave me even one young goat for a feast with my friends. Yet when this son of yours comes back after squandering your money on prostitutes, you celebrate by killing the fattened calf!’
“His father said to him, ‘Look, dear son, you have always stayed by me, and everything I have is yours. We had to celebrate this happy day. For your brother was dead and has come back to life! He was lost, but now he is found!’”
Luke 15:25-32
Consider the two sons and how they saw themselves and their father.
Have you ever heard a child speak this way to a loving parent?
“Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’
‘All these years I’ve slaved for you and never once refused to do a single thing you told me to.’
The younger son decided that he was not worthy to be called a son and was ready to be a servant. The older son saw himself as a servant that deserved more. One put himself down; the other walked in self-righteousness.
Do you see yourself in the way these two brothers reacted?
The father saw both of them as his children. Even though they had a skewed vision of themselves, he always saw them as his sons, and that never changed. You are a child of God and that will never change.
In each situation, the two sons got something right and something wrong. The younger son went back to the father in humility and repentance; when we sin and do something wrong, that is the right attitude and posture we should have in turning back to God. However, this son misjudged the father’s nature, not realising that his father would accept him as his son.
The older son was always with the father, but he was so focused on the work that he was doing, that he lost sight of who the father was and who he was as a son. Doing God’s work is not a bad thing; but when you focus on the work and leave God out of it, it can pull you away from God. However, you will always be a child of God and He is only as far as your choice to turn back to Him. The older son worked hard, and likewise we should be faithful to God. However, our faithfulness to God is not why God loves us. We are faithful because God loves us; He loved us first.
Our view of God can change our view of ourselves. Do you see yourself as a servant that doesn’t deserve to be called a child of God? Do you see yourself as a righteous person who absolutely should be called a child of God?
Jesus tells us that it is neither; we don’t deserve to be God’s children. It is through His grace that we are His children. Nothing we can do can earn that. All we can do is make that choice to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.
Colossians 3:10
LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR
Consider the older son again —
He allowed jealousy and self-righteousness get in the way of having a proper relationship with his father. When the father called him to join the party, his response was ‘this son of yours’. Not ‘my brother’.
Do you see your fellow believers as brothers or sisters in Christ? Or, do you think of others as ‘those people,’ and ‘that church’? Jealousy and self-righteousness can come in the way of building relationships with others. Pride can make you think ‘I’m not like that’ or ‘Look at me, unlike them, I’m doing this!’. There is a tendency to compare with others, such as the size of a church, the format of a church meeting, or the success of a certain ministry. But that is not what God wants; God calls his children to live in community and to encourage and love one another (Hebrews 10:24). He has given all believers the Holy Spirit so that they can use their spiritual gifts to support each other. Words have power, and they can be used to build up or put down (Proverbs 10:11). Words plant seeds in people’s lives.
Do you encourage people with you words? Do you build people up with your words? God intended for His children to be in community. He intended for His church to work together to do His work.
If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
1 John 4:20
In Matthew 22, Jesus tells us that loving your neighbour is equally as important as loving God. Do you put as much effort into loving others? God intended us to be the church – the ‘called-out’ community – together and do God’s work together. And everybody has a part to play! Every believer has the same Holy Spirit and can move in the power of the Spirit to do as God leads.
Do you underestimate what others can do, especially children? It is the same Holy Spirit in all believers! Do you dismiss what other believers do because it doesn’t agree with your opinion, even though it is right biblically? Don’t allow inconsequential things to come in the way of your relationship with others and God. Don’t allow things that are a matter of preference destroy bridges that have been built. If you have, bring these barriers and issues of division to God, and ask Him to help you let go. He is the God of restoration!
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
John 13:34-35
LOVE GOD
Our lives are for God’s glory. Everything we do in our lives should be to glorify God. We love God because He loved us first!
However, entitlement can come in the way of our relationship and love for God, when we believe we deserve more. When we feel entitled, we stop being grateful. We stop seeing and thanking God for all that He has done in our lives. We can feel entitled to many things. For example, do you have strong preferences about the styles or forms of worship? That can be entitlement. When we worship, it is about God, not our preferences. We focus on God who He is, and all that He has done. It is not about us.
This is what the Lord says:
“Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,
or the powerful boast in their power,
or the rich boast in their riches.
But those who wish to boast
should boast in this alone:
that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord
who demonstrates unfailing love
and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth,
and that I delight in these things.
Jeremiah 9:23-24
It is all about God. Seek to know Him more, and for who He is. And when the waves of doubt or opposition come, remember, God is with you.
A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armour so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armour so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armour of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
Ephesians 6:10-18
God has given us the tools to stand firm in Him and His Word:
Belt of truth Know the truth of the Good News; know who God is, know who your neighbour is, and know who you are in God. Know that Jesus is Lord and King!
Body armour of God’s righteousness Put down you armour of shame, insecurity and distrust; come to God in humility and repentance, thereby being clothed in His righteousness (Isaiah 61:10).
Sandals of peace and readiness Take the peace of God wherever you go; be a peacemaker. Psalm 23 says that God’s goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our lives; let that be evident wherever you go.
Shield of faith Trust in God and who He is. As you know Him more, your faith will grow.
Helmet of salvation You are saved through grace in faith, and therefore you are a child of God.
Sword of the Spirit The Holy Spirit is the Advocate, and teaches and empowers. The Holy Spirit gives spiritual gifts to help others; use it!
Pray in the Spirit at all times and in all occasions. Pray at all times and in all occasions, even in the small things.
Stay alert particularly in your relationship with God and with others. Take your thoughts captive to obey God (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Be persistent in your prayer for all believers everywhere. Pray for the global church. Pray for your neighbours. Pray for those who are being persecuted. Pray for the leaders of your nation. Pray for your family. Pray for your friends. Pray for the people around you. And be persistent in your prayers.
Love God. Love your neighbour as yourself.