God loves us and expects our response to be love for him and our neighbors.
1 John 4:7-12 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
The rule keepers had a question for Jesus, they always had questions to throw at him, they were trying to get him to say something that they could use against him. Imagine having the most awesome teacher in the world standing right in front of you and instead of asking a really sincere question, truly wanting to know what his answer is, instead you show disrespect for the teacher and what he has to say.
The Pharisees came to Jesus with questions that were designed to build a case against him, this guy knew what the law said (Dt 6:5, Lv 19:18) and he was smart enough that he probably already knew the answer to his own question. He didn't know it but he had asked the most important question that we that we all need to know the answer to.
It's easy to summarize all of the Old Testament laws with Jesus statement to love God and love your fellow man. Such a simple rule and yet the religious leaders are still burdening the people with a long list of requirements.
God is the source of love, imagine what this world would look like without love, if God had never given us love we would be living a desperate, sad existence. We must not withhold love from everyone around us! If we are truly grateful for what has been done for us then we will not be able to refrain from showing his love to everyone that we can.
Help us Lord to love you more and to show it by loving others.
You might like to read:
Are You God's Friend // I Am Loved Unconditionally // We Love Because He First Loved Us
