The 2 greatest commandments

[Lost Witness]

I know right...just about everything is "processed" nowadays lol

yea and that's the problem

 

[fhansen]

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

I have been pondering these questions lately, what does it mean to love God? What does it mean to love others "as ourselves", and what does "love thy enemies" really mean?

I could hardly think of "loving myself", in fact, the opposite has been true of me for most of my life, so can a person who does not "love" themselves, truly love others? The mainstream culture would have us believe we can't. We must "love ourselves first", before we can truly love another....

But then I get to thinking about how Jesus loved people while on earth and how he wants us to love others in the same way. Even in loving our enemies, Jesus wants us to behave differently than sinners, even though many people struggle with the concepts found in Luke 6:27-36 there is also the interesting passage in Proverbs 25:21-22 which says:

21 If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
22 You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.

This should be encouraging, shouldn't it?

Back to my theory: I think we "love" ourselves because we naturally take care of our own needs, and I think we are meant to love other people in the same way. It is not an emotion, it's an action. Jesus didn't just go around loving on everyone, giving them bearhugs - he did better than that - he helped them and he healed them.

So, what is the greatest commandment then?
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."

If love is a doing word, perhaps loving God means obeying his will ( check) but isn't it interesting that the way Jesus describes that we have to love God is in a much greater way than we are to love each other? They're "equally important", but God is first, right? Do you think we humans have those commandments in reverse when we look at the reality of our relationship with God?

To love God is to know Him -such that we value and place Him first above all else. That comes in time, to the extent that we become sickened, jaded, by the values and offerings and idols of this world, by created things over Him, and begin to place our faith, hope, and ultimately and, most importantly, love, in something better, something higher, Something eternal.

 

[Mark Quayle]

Matthew 22:36-40

36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

I have been pondering these questions lately, what does it mean to love God? What does it mean to love others "as ourselves", and what does "love thy enemies" really mean?

I could hardly think of "loving myself", in fact, the opposite has been true of me for most of my life, so can a person who does not "love" themselves, truly love others? The mainstream culture would have us believe we can't. We must "love ourselves first", before we can truly love another....

But then I get to thinking about how Jesus loved people while on earth and how he wants us to love others in the same way. Even in loving our enemies, Jesus wants us to behave differently than sinners, even though many people struggle with the concepts found in Luke 6:27-36 there is also the interesting passage in Proverbs 25:21-22 which says:

21 If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat.
If they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
22 You will heap burning coals of shame on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.

This should be encouraging, shouldn't it?

Back to my theory: I think we "love" ourselves because we naturally take care of our own needs, and I think we are meant to love other people in the same way. It is not an emotion, it's an action. Jesus didn't just go around loving on everyone, giving them bearhugs - he did better than that - he helped them and he healed them.

So, what is the greatest commandment then?
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind."

If love is a doing word, perhaps loving God means obeying his will ( check) but isn't it interesting that the way Jesus describes that we have to love God is in a much greater way than we are to love each other? They're "equally important", but God is first, right? Do you think we humans have those commandments in reverse when we look at the reality of our relationship with God?

I don't get why you think you don't (or sometimes don't) love yourself. We all do.

Hating yourself doesn't mean you don't love yourself. We may not always treat ourselves well, or look out for our own well-being or like ourselves, but love is another thing entirely. We are ALL without exception self-interested —even the most self-destructive of us does what he does out of self-interest.

 

[YahuahSaves]

I don't get why you think you don't (or sometimes don't) love yourself. We all do.

Hating yourself doesn't mean you don't love yourself. We may not always treat ourselves well, or look out for our own well-being or like ourselves, but love is another thing entirely. We are ALL without exception self-interested —even the most self-destructive of us does what he does out of self-interest.

Self-destruction is not love. Everything we do that's destructive, inflicting pain on ourselves is not born from love but from pain and hate. Often people are selfish because there is something lacking within (love) and we seek to fill the void or numb the pain with external things. Even people with inflated egos don't truly love themselves. What drives people to achieve and put their identity and self-worth in those achievements is often due to not knowing God. Love comes from God, so does our true identity and worth as a human being. The world we live in will always tell us the opposite is true and so believing God (faith) is critical to the healing process. When we truly believe God loves us, we are then able to see ourselves as he does and can then truly love others without being hindered by our feelings or our ego.

 

[fhansen]

Self-destruction is not love. Everything we do that's destructive, inflicting pain on ourselves is not born from love but from pain and hate. Often people are selfish because there is something lacking within (love) and we seek to fill the void or numb the pain with external things. Even people with inflated egos don't truly love themselves. What drives people to achieve and put their identity and self-worth in those achievements is often due to not knowing God. Love comes from God, so does our true identity and worth as a human being. The world we live in will always tell us the opposite is true and so believing God (faith) is critical to the healing process. When we truly believe God loves us, we are then able to see ourselves as he does and can then truly love others without being hindered by our feelings or our ego.

I think pride is directly opposed to love. And to the extent that pride rules inside of us we’ll tend to feel superior to others (not love), when we think we’ve met the standards of this imposter, this pride, or we’ll feel inferior, ashamed (also not love), when we fail to meet its standards, standards which change over time since pride only cares about how things “look”, in the moment, not how things really are with us. Just some thoughts.

 

[YahuahSaves]

I think pride is directly opposed to love. And to the extent that pride rules inside of us we’ll tend to feel superior to others (not love), when we think we’ve met the standards of this imposter, this pride, or we’ll feel inferior, ashamed (also not love), when we fail to meet its standards, standards which change over time since pride only cares about how things “look”, in the moment, not how things really are with us. Just some thoughts.

Great points... and pride comes from the enemy. He likes to stroke our egos and is why I believe we get caught up in the web of lies spun by the world. We need God to humble us.

 

[GDL]

If love is a doing word, perhaps loving God means obeying his will ( check) but isn't it interesting that the way Jesus describes that we have to love God is in a much greater way than we are to love each other? They're "equally important", but God is first, right? Do you think we humans have those commandments in reverse when we look at the reality of our relationship with God?

They are 2 commandments but as Jesus said, the first is the great(est) & the first. The second one is homoios - like/similar to the first. John in 1John explains we can't love God if we don't love one another and if we don't love one another then we don't love God.

These commandments are essentially circular and inextricably linked together. Within God's commandments we are instructed what love for God and for one another is. Since He commands how to love one another, how can we love one another Biblically without obeying Him, which is to love Him?

God is first. Neighbor and one another are second. If we obey God, we love God. If we love neighbor, we're obeying God, which is loving God. It's all about loving God, which is obeying God, which is loving neighbor and one another.

To be loving Biblically I don't think we can reverse the 2 commandments. They are looped together. But God is always first. It's difficult to break into a circular argument and speak a priority, but He is love and we love because He first loved us. Some dimensional reasoning seems best.