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The Lessons of Love
Of all the emotions a
person can experience, love is the most
superlative—none other begins to compare
in importance. Responding to a query about
the greatest commandment, Jesus replies,
“‘You shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind.’ This is the great
and foremost commandment. The second is
like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). Of all of
the commandments, the one that Jesus says
is most essential concerns love.
As we pursue
significance in our lives, we often
overlook this most obvious reason for our
existence. God created us to love Him and
to let His love shine through us to a
needy world. To neglect learning to love
God and others is to miss the very point
of living.
Above all else, the Lord
wants us to learn to love Him as He loves
us. God creates a new birth experience for
us at the moment of our salvation—He gives
us a new spirit as well as a new capacity
to understand Him. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
From that fresh beginning, our passion for
our heavenly Father begins to develop
until we are consumed by our desire to
please Him.
We demonstrate our love
through our obedience. It’s easy to say
that we love God; it is much harder to
prove it by following His commands and the
Holy Spirit’s gentle promptings on our
hearts. The reward for our obedience is to
know more and more of God so that we can
continue falling in love with Him.
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