Happy Sunday everyone,
Today, I’d take a good look at what the greatest commandment of the old covenant really means and how it applies to the new covenant. The greatest commandment states “Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”” These commandments as Jesus said are the greatest commandment ever and I will explain why this is so.
As I wrote from the last two write-ups, to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength imply that you need to become one with God. The reason is that love, first of all, is a person and to have the love to be able to express it to God, you need to have this person in you. Surprisingly, God is love according to 1 John 4:8. 1 John 4:8 says, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” In fulfilling this greatest commandment, we need to become one with God and this is only through Jesus Christ.
The second greatest commandment which is to love your neighbour as yourself also cannot be done with the human strength because the human strength is weak and selfish, therefore cannot fulfil the mandate. As you have received Jesus Christ into your life which is the access into having God into your life, you would then be able to love your neighbour as yourself. But now that you died with Christ and have ceased to exist, Jesus then brought up a deeper look at the second greatest commandment which is, “…you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” John 13:34.
This new commandment which Jesus gave in John 13: 34 was before His resurrection. Apostle John was able to write a deeper understanding of what Jesus said in John 13:34 because as we now have the life of God, our lives have to be different. And he wrote this in 1 John 3:23 which says, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment. Now 1 John 3:23 is the merger of both the first and second greatest commandment of the old covenant. This one is that of the new, which actually is the greatest commandment, once you believe on the name of the Jesus Christ, you will have the life of God which would enable you to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and also to love your neighbour as Christ loves you. Why is this so? It is so because Jesus had earlier said in John 15:5 that without Him we can do nothing, and Paul was able to write Colossians 3:4 that Christ is now our life.
There is a power in the love which you have in Christ as you receive Him. This power is giving, and giving is an act which God expects us to use as our currency here on earth. Giving here is not just giving, but giving in love, and this is very important. How can this be the currency God expects us to use on earth? Does that mean we weren’t supposed to use money from the beginning? Is money bad and against God? All these questions I would start to address from tomorrow, don’t forget to log on.
May the LORD bless you and keep you, make His face shine upon you. May the LORD be gracious to you and lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. AMEN.
Why not accept Jesus today if you haven’t. Pray out loud, “Jesus, I confess that You are my Lord and Saviour. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. By faith in Your Word, I receive salvation now. Thank You for saving me!” Congratulations, you’re born again, you are now brand new!
Log on next time.
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GOD BLESS YOU.
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Unless otherwise stated, the following scriptures are gotten from New King James Version (NKJV)
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