Living and Loving

Matt.22:37-40  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

First we are  to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. How in the world do we do that? The only way I know to love God is to get to know Him.  We do that through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we love Him, because we were created to respond to people who love us. To love Him with all our being is the first and greatest commandment. The next commandment in this passage tells that we are to love others as ourselves. So, if we are to love others as much as ourselves, stands to reason that we are to love ourselves. Now, that may seem like a selfish thing to do. But actually how we feel about ourselves determines how we treat and love our neighbor. So how do we love ourselves, anyway? By doing the right thing and making the right choices.  Let me use this illustration that happened while I was raising my four children. Our son, Brian, is the only boy and the youngest child. His main job was to keep the trash empited and the yard mowed. Many times when he had to mow the yard, he was not thrilled to do so. Some times he was downright unhappy, especially when he was younger. But we said to him, "Son, happy or glad, it doesn't matter to us, just get the yard mowed." How he felt about doing it was not the issue. He would start out a little slow, but after a while he would really get into doing a good job. When he finished the yard, he usually always said, "Hey, Mom, looks pretty good, huh?" He felt good about himself because he had done what he was told to do.  We are not helping our children to love themselves when we allow them to disobey us.
 Prov. 15:32 says, "He that refuseth instruction, despiseth his own soul." I can find no other Biblical reason for a poor self-image. Loving others (our neighbor) is much easier when we feel good about ourselves. The last verse in this passage is such a relief to me. On these two commandments hang ALL the law and the prophets. This is fantastic! God is telling me here that if I can remember to follow His commandments for loving, my living on earth will be to the fullest. The Bible Formula: 1. Love God (by getting to know Him) 2. Love yourself (by doing the right thing and making right choices. 3. Love others ( by giving and giving)