Sermons Notes

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one, answered Jesus, is this: 'Hear, O Israel, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second it this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31

In the kingdom of God the subject of Love is a two sided coin - We are to love God and we are to love one another. The spiritual and the social are not divided.

1. Love God.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30 (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Whatever God has made you and whatever God has given you should be devoted to loving Him.

God set the example.

He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Romans 8:32

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1

Be imitators of God therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us. Ephesians 5:1, 2

2. Love One Another.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:31 (Luke 19:18)

Love one another. 1 John 4:7

Your neighbor is God's image-bearer.

If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4:20-21

Jesus asks us to show God's love to anyone and everyone we encounter. This is more than saying " Love the whole wide world," for he is telling us to love specific people … the people in our lives.

The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:9-10

If you learn to love God and love each person as you love yourself you will discover the importance of each person in each moment even as you discover how God wants you to use each opportunity He gives you.

The New International Version of the Bible is the translation quoted today.