Jesus taught that we are all children of God and as such we should dedicate ourselves to the doing of our Father’s will. This raises the natural question, “What is God’s will?” This episode begins the answer to this question with Jesus’ greatest commandment, the commandment to love.

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Podcast Transcript

Love God. If we are wholly committed to the doing of God’s will, our next question is, “What is God’s will?” There are numerous answers to this question, but in a word, God’s will is love. Love identifies the volitional will of God. As his children our part is to love God supremely and our neighbor as ourselves. When asked what is the greatest commandment Jesus replied, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Mk 29:30; Mt 22:39,40).

Love God supremely. Jesus offered many instructions and directives for living the good life such as, “Be of good cheer,” “Judge not,” and “Be merciful,” but he gave us only one clear commandment, the commandment to love. His first and greatest commandment was to love God with all our being, our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God is our loving heavenly Father, and he loves us with an infinite Fatherly affection. Our part is to return this love. We love God because he first loved us and because of his loving nature, his mercy, his goodness, his forgiveness, and his loving kindness. Because of his great love for us He sent his divine Son to establish the kingdom of God here on earth, and He bestowed upon us a portion of his spirit to live in our hearts and direct our ways. As we ponder our Father’s loving nature, there is only one reasonable and natural reaction; we will yield to God an affection like that of a child to a loving earthly parent.

Love our brothers and sisters. The corollary to the truth of our sonship with God is its associated truth of the brotherhood of man. If I am a son of God, my creator Father, then so is everyone else. Under God we are all brothers and sisters to one another. This means that if I seek to live as God’s son I must learn to see and treat all others as my brothers and sisters.  To truly live as God’s children, we must by faith accept not only our sonship with God, but also our brotherhood with all other human personalities. This was Jesus’ second great commandment: to love others as our brothers and sisters in God’s heavenly family.

The nature of love. In Jesus’ teaching this supreme law of love for God and man constitutes our whole duty. Love is the greatest of all spirit realities and the rule of living within the kingdom of God. Love is truly contagious. The experience of love is very much a direct response to being loved. Love forgives wrongs. It is the supreme relationship and the secret of beneficial association between persons. Our love for others should be wise, with the long term good of the person kept in mind—not shortsighted and foolish. Love is the desire to do good to others.

Paul’s description of love. Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians provides us with a beautiful description of the nature and import of love: “If I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, endures all things…. So, faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor. 13:1-7,13)

To love is to live the religion of Jesus. Our unselfish love for one another is the proof of our living the religion of Jesus. He even urged us to, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you.” (Lk. 6:27-28) The degree of our love for our fellow man is the measure of the degree to which we have yielded to the inner leadings of our spirit Father. At the end of his life on earth Jesus gave his followers a new and higher commandment, to love others not only as we love ourselves, but also as he loved us. He declared, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another even as I have loved you…. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn. 13:34,35)

 

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