- Love God with all of your heart, all of your soul, all of your mind, and all of your strength.
- Regard the well being of others as you regard your own well being.
Love of God and Love of your neighbor form the crux of the covenant God made with Israel through Moses, as well as the church, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ, those called out of the world, into the kingdom of God.
Moses received the tablets of stone written by the finger of God. Those who were first called out to follow Christ heard the law of love from the lips of Jesus Himself. The tablets, known as the ten commandments or Decalogue, prescribed how people should act toward God and others. Micah describes the moral life in terms of ethics toward God and others,
“8 He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?” In the past, in the present, in the future God requires actions of love to God and to Others.
It is in bringing to fullness the work of Christ in my life, along with the belief that God desires union with us all that I find expression of my relationship with the God. Jesus the Christ reconciled me to God by His act of love:
19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,20and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
When I abide in Christ, my perceptions, my entire outlook is changed. Concern about my own well being begins to mix with concern for other. When God’s Holy Spirit shines light on God’s perspective I can not but help to act in mercy and love toward those who cross my path. those around me in pain. The Holy Spirit, “… whom they that believe on him [Jesus] should receive:”
- The power of God’s energy begins to crumble and break the self’s endless action of expending energy, resources, and strength on itself to mix with concern for others.
- The power of the Spirit then strengthens and encourages me to strengthen and encourage others.
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.