Love God first; love people second. These are what Jesus said are the first and second greatest commandments. Love God first; love people second.
"Everything else hangs on this," He said. The idea is that if my life is motivated by the law of Love, then my choices will be a natural outflow of that love. Love makes obedience easy. Love makes sacrifice easy. Love makes commitment easy... ok, maybe easier. A great example of this is Joseph in the book of Genesis, who, when tempted to sleep with his master's wife, responded by saying, "How could I do this thing and sin against my God and my master?" Joseph loved God and loved people, and therefore he refused to sin about them. Here's the thing with this principle:
Don't confuse the order.
Jesus' description of love as the greatest commandment is powerful, but sometimes we just stop at love in general as the motivating force for our actions. Jesus went a step beyond that; He got specific. He placed an intentional order here, and the order is this:
Love God FIRST.
Love people SECOND.
If you confuse the order, if you love people first and love God second, you miss the point. "Everything else hangs on this..." Our love for people hangs on our love for God. We cannot love others, ourselves or even God rightly when we put people before Him. This is a painful and challenging truth, because it's difficult at times to love Someone most when we can't see Him, hear Him, touch Him or feel Him. I can see my dad. I can talk to my mom. I can hug my sister. I can touch a friend. When I have a husband and kids someday, I'm sure the challenge will be even greater: keep God first.
But if we truly love our families, our friends and the other people in our world, we will commit to loving God above them all. In so doing, we will know HIS love, no longer just human love, and HIS love will empower us to love like He loves, to love well, completely and fully, to the end.
Is there anyone in your life today that you have been loving more than God?
What would it look like to set your affection on Him first and others second?
I knew there was something about you when I saw you and heard you...teetering on that clift of real spiitual understanding of Jesus and his message. In other words, moving beyond what others say about Jesus, and what actually Jesus said. Love God first! Love others second. You can't do the second without the first. God IS God and Jesus IS Jesus. The Buddhists have a saying which is worth comtemplating in this regard: "Religion is like a finger pointing at the moon." Let me know when you think you know what this means...I would love to hear your thoughs.
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