Love: The most important virtue

Scripture:

Mark 12:28-34

Quick Summary:

The teachers of the law were trying to stump Jesus, so they asked him what commandment was the most important one. Jesus answered “Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

The Point:

The Greatest Commandments: Love God and Love others

Questions for Family Time:

                  1.      What are the two most important commandments?

a.      Love God, Love others.

                  2.      Why are they the most important ones?

a.      Because they are all the other ones simplified.

                  3.      How do you love God?

a.      (by spending time with him, by following his rules, by putting him first)

4. How do you love others?

            a. (Say nice things, help, give a gift, spend time/play with them, hug them.)

Deeper:

 Jesus said love summed up the 613 commandments in the Old Testament. When you look at the 10 Commandments, they seem to follow in these two categories of love as well. The first half are about how we love God and the second half are about how we love each other. The one thing over and over and over that God tells us to do is to love. 

           Love is the most important of all virtues. There are four words for love in the original language of the Bible. Jesus almost always used the same word. It was a word the always provoked a person to action. Jesus love is not something we merely feel or proclaim. It is something that we do. Jesus love is a love that goes first. It is not conditioned on some right behavior.

Jesus outlined four ways to love God: 1. Love him with all your heart. 2. With all your soul. 3. With all your mind. 4. With all your strength. We are to love him with our emotions, with our spiritual lives, with our thinking, and with our doing. There should be no part of our life that is separate from our relationship with God. In fact the Apostle Paul said it was pointless to do anything without it being in and through love.

           
             But Jesus doesn’t stop with this commandment. He could. He was only asked the most important commandment. But he goes on to say the second most important commandment is to love others.  In Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus tells us that how we treat others is how we treat Jesus. When we love others, we love Jesus. That is how important it is to God that we treat others with love.

Personal Reflection:

How do you love God with your heart? With your soul? With your mind? With your strength? How do you love others as you love yourself?