Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV)
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus 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.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Galatians 5:14 (NIV)
“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 7:12 (NIV)
“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
I suggest that in this context the word love is best understood as “value” or “cherish”. And I suggest that the best way we value or cherish the Lord, ourselves, and our neighbor, is by doing the most helpful thing we can presently do for who it is we’re cherishing.
Here’s a question that I think sheds light on what the greatest commandments are aiming for:
“Lord, what is the most helpful thing I can do for you in working with you as you seek to help the people in my life today?”
Notice:
How so?
Why is acting “for you” — for the Lord — cherishing the Lord with all that we are?
Because to love God is to make what is most important to him most important to us. And nothing is more important to the Lord than revealing who he is. Who is he? He is a personal, live torrent of self-giving, self-sacrificial helpfulness that works day and night to make all his creatures just like him.
And why is acting “with you” — with the Lord — also loving my neighbor as myself?
Because if I value myself then I want God to reveal himself to me and make me like himself, and so with cherishing my neighbor. But here’s the catch: only God knows how to best reveal himself to my neighbor right now and help move them a step closer to his goal of making them like himself. Therefore, I must work with God. I must hear from him as to what he would have me do lest I say or do something that doesn't line up with his present activity in my neighbor’s heart.
So, back to the question:
“Lord, what is the most helpful thing I can do for you in working with you as you seek to help to the people in my life today?”
Will the Lord answer that question? Asking that is on par with asking, “if I stand under the Niagara Falls, will I get wet?”
Just as the Niagara Falls, by nature, gets everything it touches wet, so the Lord — who by nature is helpfulness — will most certainly help anyone who asks to be as he is: always helpful.
