1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Matthew 22:36-40
The Two Greatest Commandments
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Matthew 24:35
Jesus' Words Will Never Pass Away
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
John 13:33-35
Love One Another
33 “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
God, neighbor, and love...Jesus has eternally linked God neighbor and love together when He gave us the Two Greatest Commandments...And we see this connection very much in when He told His Disciples to love one another...He says as I have LOVED you, so you must love one another...By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another...And we see it again in His teachings when He gives His Disciples the Great Commission...After all, the Great Commission is telling everyone about God, neighbor, and love -the love we have for both God and each and every neighbor...And when Jesus forever links God, neighbor, and love -I think it is good to reflect on their importance and the importance of this teaching...
When Jesus ascended into heaven after His resurrection, He did not want His teachings to just cease...He told His Disciples in Galilee and before He left them, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything He had commanded them...And surely He is still with them, and will always be with them, to the very end of the age...So when we think about God, neighbor, and love and about Jesus teachings in this Great Commission, He wants us to be like Him and teach others about loving God and loving our neighbors...Not only will He be with His Disciples till the end of the ages, His teachings will never pass...We are to become little Christs so speak and do what He did in His ministry and to teach others in a compassionate way about God and those around us...
C. S. Lewis said this about us being more like Jesus and becoming little Christs, "May I come back to what I said before?...This is the whole of Christianity...There is nothing else. It is so easy to get muddled about that...It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services...Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects—military, political, economic, and what not...But in a way things are much simpler than that...The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life...A husband and wife chatting over a fire, Jubilee Church in Rome a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden— that is what the State is there for...And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time...In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs...If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time...God became Man for no other purpose."...