This is LOVE

“In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.

This sums up the law and prophets.”

These are the words of Jesus. Who when asked what was the greatest commandment answered:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first and greatest commandment.

The Second is like it“, he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself.

All the Law and prophets hang on these two commands.”

The law and the prophets.

From Genesis to Malachi.

From Moses to Jeremiah.

Every law and every command.

Every “Thou shalt and “Thou shalt not”.

Summed up in a single word: LOVE

This is the number one rule of Christianity.

The top priority.

The foundational value. LOVE

It isn’t rule-obeying, regulation-following, command-keeping.

It isn’t church-going, money-giving, sin-shirking.

It is LOVE.

LOVE in everything we do.

In the checkout line and the parking lot.

In the office and in the kitchen.

Behind the steering wheel and computer desk.

In our politics and prayers, our spending and our giving, our speaking and our listening.

In EVERYTHING we do.

There is no thought or action or place or time or desire or intention where LOVE is not to be our ONE law.

This is what we Christ-followers are called to do. LOVE.

In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.

Others.

Not just those we like and who like us.

Not just those who think and vote like we do.

All others.

Those from other religions, other political parties, other races.

The outcast and the jerk, the obnoxious and the overlooked, the radical and the religious, your neighbor and the beggar, your in-laws, and boss.

Those who annoy you and anger you, those who mistreat you and misjudge you.

Others. All others.

There are no exclusions, no exceptions. We are called to love others.

But what does LOVE look like? How do we love?

In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you.

Love is treating others as you would want to be treated.

You don’t lie because you don’t want to be lied to.

You don’t steal because you don’t want to be stolen from.

You respect property, relationships, reputation because you want to be respected.

You are generous to the needy, visit the sick, care for the distressed because this is what you want to be done to you in your time of need.

You pray and give, serve and listen, go the extra mile, apologize, forgive.

You do to others as you would have them do to you.

You LOVE.

And in loving others, you fulfill all the demands of the Law and Prophets.

Not only that, but you fulfill the first and greatest commandment.

To Love the Lord your God.

For this is how we know that we love God—when we love one another.

Jesus said that “Everyone will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the prophets.

-Denise