Beginning in Deuteronomy and carried into the New Testament through the words of Jesus, we read time and again that, as servants of The God of the universe, we are to ‘love The Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.’ A secondary command is given in both Testaments, that we are also to ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ This is called the ‘shema’.
Love is indeed a verb. It’s the action that sets us apart from the world around us and identifies us as followers of Jesus. Love is also an experience that we are blessed to know and enjoy because God has chosen to first love us. When we combine the command to love with the ways we are to love, we can create a series of checkpoints to help us identify where we are submitting to God’s commands as well as some areas where we need to lean-in and pay closer attention to.
