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“The most important [commandment],” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.‘ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions. (Mark 12:29-34)
Do you ever think about what “Love” really means? I do.
There is lots of baggage on what we understand about loving–lots of qualifiers… “if they agree with me,” “if they look and act and live like me,” “if they go to the same church, denomination, religion, or school as me,” “if they work for a living, if they have a nice home, if they’re industrious, if they never ask me for anything, if they clean up after themselves, if they smell good and act “normal,” “if they don’t sleep around, get drunk, do drugs, or get violent,” “if they stay on their side of the fence, if they stay in their own neighborhoods, if they accept my ‘charity’, if they act grateful when I do something for them, if they speak the same language…” The list of qualifiers is endless. And they’re all sinful.
