Love is very important to God. In fact, when Jesus was asked which commandment in the Bible was the greatest commandment, He replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” This means that we should love God and love others. Every other command in the whole Bible fits into one of these two commandments, and they’re both about love. We all need to follow both of these commandments (and in the right order!). If we miss one or the other or switch which one is most important, then we aren’t living the way God intended for us to live.
• Loving God but not loving others – Following God’s rules is a good way to show Him that we love Him, but if all we care about is following the rules and looking good, and we don’t care about other people, then we’re missing the point. In fact, the people Jesus got most angry with were people who followed the rules but only cared about themselves. If we really love God, then we’ll love what and who He loves, too; and God loves each and every one of us so very much.
• Not loving God but loving others – There are some people who believe in false gods, and some who believe there is no God. We call people who don’t believe in any god “atheists.” And not everyone who doesn’t believe in God is a “bad person”; you can still be nice to people if you don’t love God, but you’d be missing out big time. Without the love of God in our hearts, we can’t live our lives to their fullest potential, and without believing in Jesus, we can never go to heaven.
• Not loving God or other people – If it’s not good to be missing one or the other, then it’s pretty clear that we definitely shouldn’t be missing BOTH the greatest and second greatest commandments.
• Loving other people more than God – It’s very important to love other people, but sometimes we can fall into the trap of loving our friends or our family more than God, which is not good. There are many people who abandon their faith in God so that they won’t hurt other people’s feelings. And God wants us to “speak the truth in love,” but that doesn’t mean that we need to abandon the truth if it hurts people’s feelings.
Love is not always easy—in fact, it’s often difficult—but let’s all live our lives filled with God’s love, and do our best to love God and love others!
“Love God, Love Others” Bible Verses:
- Matthew 22:36-40 | The Greatest Commandment
- 1 John 4:8 | God is love
- John 3:16 | God so loved the world
- John 15:13 | Greater love has no one than this
- Ephesians 4:15 | Speak the truth in love
- Matthew 5:43-48 | Love for enemies
“Love God, Love Others” Family Time Questions:
• What are the two greatest commandments?
• What can happen if you don’t follow one of these commandments?
• What can happen if you switch the order of these two commandments?
Prayer:
Dear God, thank you so much for choosing me. Please help me to live the life that you have called me to. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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