Did you know that all of the commandments in the Bible can be summarized into just two commands? That’s right, all of His commandments for our lives can fit under one of the two greatest commands. In Matthew 22, Jesus answers the question, “Which is the greatest commandment?”. In verse 37, Jesus answers, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”. He does not stop there though, he says this is the first and greatest commandment and that the second is this, in verse 39, “Love your neighbor as yourself”.
So, we are to love God and love others, but to do this in our own power, consistently, will not happen. We are human. We get frustrated, people annoy us, we hold grudges, and speak unkind words, even to those we say we love. So, where does the source of this love come from? In I John 7:7, the Bible says that we are to love one another and that this love comes from God, and in verse 11, “Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”. In fact, this is so important to God that He says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar...Whoever loves God must also love his brother” (v 20-21). We need to remain in God’s love so that we have love to pour out to others.
I have been very discouraged lately, in some of our society’s lack of love for one another. We need God. We need His love in our lives, in the lives of our friends, family, neighbors, and communities. There have been so many acts of injustice, racism, and pure evil. In Titus 3:3-5 it says, “We lived in malice, envy, being hated and hating one another, but when the kindness of our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy”. He alone is the source of our consistent love. We can love because He loved us first. We need to experience His love, to be able to appropriately and consistently pour out love to others.
So what can we do when we get discouraged hearing of all the hatred in the world today? First, we can pray. Pray that God’s love would pour out on His people. Pray for people’s hearts to be open to hear God’s words and that they would turn towards Him. Second, we can love. We can show love to those around us. We can be slow to anger and quick to forgive. Remember, we don’t love others because they necessarily deserve it, but because God loves us and commands us to love each other. Each one of us is God’s child, created in His image. Let’s try to be patient with one another and to love well. Lastly, we can spread the good news. It’s times like these that people are searching for more; searching for hope. We have that hope! We know that it is not supposed to be like this. Listen to others, meet them where they are, and introduce them to your source of hope and love. They need it so badly. We can bring love to the world by introducing the world to the true source of love, God.