Week #3: Loving God and Loving Others: The Heart of the Christian Life
Blog Series Intention Recap
When you ask someone what they think about the church, be prepared for any response. What they say may inspire feelings of anger, sadness, joy, or hope, depending on what they have experienced in their dealings with believers. This five-week series explores five congregational values that should define our relationships with those inside and outside the church. When we fulfill our biblical call to the four C’s—commission, community, commandment, and collaboration—we can be the church that glorifies Jesus.
This post is the main page of the series “Our House.” Click here to see the rest of the posts.
Let’s jump into Week #3:
The Greatest Commandment: Loving God and Loving Others… In Matthew 22:34–40, Jesus simplifies the complex law into two central commands: love God and love others. These commandments are not just theoretical; they are actionable principles that should define our lives and our relationships. Our theology must lead to loving action, and our love for others is the most visible expression of our love for God.Loving God and loving others are inseparable. Our devotion to God must overflow into our relationships with others, and our theology must lead us to act in ways that reflect God’s love. This week, let’s examine how these two greatest commandments guide our daily lives, relationships, and service.
Why it Matters:
The Heart of God’s Law: Jesus clarifies the entire law by focusing on two central commands—love God and love others.
The Relationship Between Love for God and Love for Others: Our love for God must manifest in how we love those around us.
Theological Foundations for Loving Action: True love for God is reflected in our practical, loving actions toward others.
Living Out the Commandments: Loving God and loving others is not optional—it is the essence of what it means to follow Jesus.
Go Deeper:
If you were to ask a group of people what the most important command in the Bible is, you would likely get a variety of answers. Some might say “Do not murder” or “Honor your father and mother,” while others might point to the Ten Commandments or the many teachings of Jesus. But when Jesus was asked this question, He gave a clear and concise answer: love God and love others.
In Matthew 22:34–40, Jesus was confronted by a lawyer who asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” He then added, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
These two commandments are the foundation of Christian living. They summarize the entire message of the Bible and define the way we are to live as followers of Jesus. In this week’s blog post, we will explore what it means to love God and love others, and how these commandments are not just theoretical ideas but actionable principles that should shape every area of our lives.
The Heart of God’s Law
Jesus’ response to the lawyer is profound in its simplicity. He distills the complexity of the Old Testament law into two essential commands. These two commandments—love God and love others—are the foundation of the entire Bible. All the moral and ethical teachings of Scripture, from the Ten Commandments to the Sermon on the Mount, flow from these two central commands.
The first command, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37), calls us to total devotion to God. It is a call to love God with our entire being—our emotions (heart), our will (soul), and our intellect (mind). Loving God is not just about going through the motions; it is about giving God our full allegiance, surrendering our desires, and committing our thoughts and actions to Him.
The second command, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39), is a natural outflow of the first. If we love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we will naturally love others. This command extends beyond mere affection; it calls us to actively care for the well-being of those around us, just as we care for ourselves.
Jesus’ emphasis on these two commandments reveals the heart of God’s law: love. It is not a cold, legalistic set of rules but a relational command that calls us to love God and love others. The Christian life is centered on relationships—our relationship with God and our relationships with others.
The Relationship Between Love for God and Love for Others
One of the most important lessons from Jesus’ words is the inseparable relationship between love for God and love for others. These two commandments are not independent of one another. Our love for God should naturally overflow into our love for others. As 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Jesus Himself modeled this interconnected love throughout His life. He demonstrated perfect love for His Father by loving others sacrificially. His greatest act of love—His death on the cross—was motivated by His love for God and His love for humanity. Jesus shows us that love for God is not a private or inward feeling; it is active and outwardly expressed in love for others.
The apostle Paul also emphasizes this connection in Galatians 5:14, where he writes, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Loving others is not a secondary or optional command; it is central to the Christian life. When we love others, we are fulfilling God’s law because we are reflecting God’s own love toward us.
Theological Foundations for Loving Action
The call to love God and love others is not just an ethical or moral instruction; it is rooted in the very character of God. God is love (1 John 4:8), and the love we are called to reflect is His love. Our ability to love others is grounded in our understanding of God’s love for us. In 1 John 4:19, we are reminded, “We love because He first loved us.”
This love is not just an emotion or a feeling; it is a self-sacrificial action. Jesus teaches us that true love is shown in action, not just words. In John 15:13, He says, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” The ultimate expression of love is self-sacrifice. Loving God and loving others means laying down our own desires and putting the needs of others above our own.
In the same way, our theology must lead to loving action. Good theology—rightly understanding the love of God—will always result in loving action. When we understand God’s immense love for us, it compels us to love others in tangible ways. Our love for God is not complete unless it is expressed in love for others.
Living Out the Commandments
Loving God and loving others is not optional—it is the essence of what it means to follow Jesus. The entire Christian life is summed up in these two commandments. As followers of Christ, we are called to live out these commandments every day in our relationships, our work, our service, and our worship.
But living out these commandments is not easy. It requires dying to self, setting aside our own preferences, and serving others with humility and grace. It requires being intentional about loving those who are difficult to love, forgiving those who have wronged us, and putting others’ needs before our own. Jesus calls us to love with a radical, self-sacrificial love—just as He loved us.
The Apostle Paul provides a practical guide for living out these commandments in 1 Corinthians 13. This famous passage on love reminds us that love is patient, kind, not envious, not proud, not rude, and not easily angered. Love rejoices in the truth and always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. This is the kind of love we are called to show to both God and others.
How does this help me understand, “Our House?”
Loving God, Loving Others
As we conclude this week’s reflection on the greatest commandments, let’s remember that love is the essence of the Christian life. Loving God and loving others is not a task we check off our to-do list; it is the foundation of our faith. These two commandments summarize all that God desires from us.
This week, examine your relationships. How can you grow in your love for God? How can that love overflow into tangible actions of love for others? Love for God and love for others are inseparable, and together they form the heartbeat of the Christian life. Let’s commit to loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and let’s love others with the same self-sacrificial love that Christ has shown us.
