First, Love.

FIRST, LOVE.

“One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matt 22:36-40 ESV & NLT

In this exchange, Jesus gives disciples this profound focus:
Love God and Love neighbors… EVERYTHING else is based on these two things.

This is the quest: To work out how to truly love God and love our neighbors.

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In our Mission Collab community, we have discovered the rich discipleship that comes from regular times dedicated to “pulling the thread” discussions on Scripture.

We have been exploring:

• What does it mean to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves? Verse 40 says: “On these two commandments hang all the law and prophets.”

  • Could Jesus have been saying that Loving God and Loving others (and loving ourselves) are the CORE of life?

  • Does EVERYTHING else about following Jesus come from these two things? What does this mean for us practically?

• What is Love? Is love defined by the giver? Is love defined by the receiver? Or is love defined in the relationship interaction of both? If I express my love to you how I like to… but you don’t feel loved… is it love?

  • What does it look like to love Yahweh and love others? What is Yahweh’s love language? Have we asked Him how He loves to be loved?

  • What are our neighbors’ love languages? How can we love our neighbors in ways that they perceive and receive it as Love? We will have to take the time to truly get to know them to love them well.

We determined that to Love Yahweh and others well, we will have to know them and know what they enjoy / how they receive Love. This will take more time and effort. It will take genuine relationships.

And Loving Yahweh well will require us to at least start asking Him, “How can I Love You well? How do You want to be Loved?”

This feels like sacred and challenging work. 🤍