The First and Greatest Commandment Part II

 

The First and Greatest Commandment Part II

Now let's take a look at the second part of the greatest commandment that has been given to us by God. In part one we see that we are to love God with our heart soul mind and strength.

In part two the Bible says we are to love our neighbor as our self.  Whoa...
How is that even possible. I don't know about you, but I know about myself and that I don't even know my neighbors. So the only thing I can do is look to Jesus the greatest example of Love on this Earth. First and foremost he loved father God with all his heart soul mind and strength. And secondly he loved all people and wanted all people to come into a fall knowledge of the truth and who God was. He was willing to sacrifice his life in order that the world would be saved. He understood it was the only way to restore the plan of God and bring people back into the heart of gods loving arms.

So in order to love your neighbor as yourself you first have to love yourself. This does not mean love yourself as the world loves you, but love yourself just as God loves you. The only possible way to do that is to understand how much God loves you and the sacrifice that God made for you. He loves you so much that he would have done anything for you including giving of his own son as the father and giving of himself as the son. That means that if you were the only one that truly believed and confess Jesus as Lord, the ultimate sacrifice by God would still have been made. Because God could not make a covenant with an untrustworthy unbelieving people, he made a forever covenant with himself. He is determined to restore all that was lost in the garden of Eden. His love and relationship with you and all the people of God means everything to him.

God wants to show and teach you the true meaning of pure love and what it means to be in the family of God. He wants us to understand how he sees us spiritually and perfectly through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He knows we're not perfect and we make mistakes but through Christ he only sees the pureness of Christ living within us. When we stand before the judgment seat of God it will be Christ and his righteousness and justification that is been paid for through his son Jesus Christ. It's not by our works or anything that we actually do, but it is by the finished work of Christ on the cross.  Jesus last words before he died on the cross were it is finished! We need only to believe this. The definition of righteousness is Right standing, and justification is just as if you'd never sinned.  It truly is all about believing in him and loving him.

Once we believe we still have a journey to walk. As we walked that journey and overcome obstacles in life and our old man nature which is our old habits and way of thinking, the Lord walks with us. He is by our side every moment of the day and never ever forsake us or leaves us. Sometimes it feels like he is silent. But he is still there whether you believe it or not. The problem with man and even the church today is that they don't truly believe he's there with them every moment of the day. If we did believe that would we do some of the things we do?

Think about this for a moment. Let's say you are with your spouse and she or he asked you to help her with a project around the house. Instead of helping them you go to The neighbor next door and go help them instead.  How do you think that would make your loved one feel? Would that inspire love in them? Would they feel like the number one priority in your life? NO! That  certainly wouldn't make them feel loved or respected, would it.  I think sometimes we forget that God has feelings too.  When we ignore God or even discount what he thinks about us and how he loves us and sees us, we again are basically telling him that he doesn't know what he's talking about and his words are not true. Does that sound familiar? Yes, just like in the garden of Eden.

In order to love ourselves we must know how much God loves us and get a deep understanding of his true love for us and believe his words. In order to believe his words we must know his word and fight to put on the word of God everyday into our hearts and minds. Only then can we truly love others as Christ also loved us. As we walk in agape love which is pure godly love, through the holy spirit that lives within us, then and only then can we love others.

God will do whatever it takes to show you his love for you. The more you understand his love for you it becomes easier to love others and to love yourself. Your old man nature, your old habits, your old stinking thinking starts to fade away and your mind and heart transform into The godly child of God that God has called you to be. God is the one that changes us but we must be willing to partner with him. If we are willing he is able. If we are not willing he is not able. He gives us the choice. And the next chapter I will give you an example of God's love that happened to our family. I hope you enjoy the true story and see how much God loved my sister. You see it was very important that she understood this Love because a year later she passed away from cancer unexpectedly. Like this story there are many stories that I will be sharing to show how jealous God is for us. All of these stories are true. If you have spiritual eyes to see, you can reflect to see possible stories or coincidences as some people call it that have happened to you also. Never doubt how much God loves you. Never doubt how much potential God sees in you and who you are as his creation. Okay, let's go on this journey together my dear Brothers and sisters in Christ.