Matthew 22:34-40
The Two Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:
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."
The Commandments of Love are taught by Jesus...Jesus teaches us about love...God made us to share our love...To have love we need God and we need another one...Jesus calls another one, a neighbor...
God first introduces us to love in the beginning, in Genesis...After creating the heavens and the earth and saw all He made, He said it was very good (Genesis 1:31)...But God looked down on man and saw he was alone...God said that it is not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18)...God shows us, it takes two to love...To have love, we need another...We need a partner...Before there was even a father or mother (or even the term wife), God teaches us that for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife and they will become one flesh (Genesis 2:24)...This underscores how important love and marriage are...
Love is something to be shared...To love someone, we need someone...If you are the only one, love cannot exist...God put love in our hearts, at all times...When we have the happiest times in our lives, love is in our hearts...When we are at the lowest points in our lives, love is felt in our hearts...When we accomplish our greatest feats in life, we want to share it with someone...We really look around and after a successful accomplishment, we look around to hug someone or to say something to someone about the accomplishment...We want to share that feeling...We might say, we want to celebrate that feeling...When something good has happened to someone or a group or team we follow, involved with, or are close with, we want to share our feelings with another...Sometimes, an impromptu response, is to hold someone after your favorite team scores...If you are by yourself you might be looking around for someone to hold or give a high five to...
God made us to share our feelings...
When we are at our lowest points in life, we need another one...It is not good to be alone (Genesis 2:18)...Someone to be with during troubled times is a good thing...Support is necessary...Love is necessary during our suffering times...We need to share these times too...
If we are the only person in the world, and there is no God, what is love...Without another or others, what is love?...Without the ability to share our feelings, what is love?...
Jesus furthers His Father's importance of love...The Ten Commandments can be summed up in love...His disciple John learned this from Him, and that is because God is love (1 John 4:16)...In John 13:34-35, Jesus give us another and new commandment, when He says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."...Jesus even teaches us to love our enemies (Luke 6:35)...To love another, we must be merciful...Jesus expects us to be merciful, even to our enemies...
Love in forgiving...Love is shared...Jesus teaches, he who forgives little, loves little...
Jesus died for us and tells us in John 15:13 that there is no greater love than this, to lay down his life for friends...Jesus loved us...Jesus died for us...
St. Paul sums it up by saying. I can have all the knowledge in the world, and can solve all the mysteries of life, but if I do not have someone to love and to share my love with, I have nothing...