The Right Answer
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, "which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is: 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall 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 is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." - Mark 12:28-31
Jesus is asked here about the most important of the hundreds of commandments in the Jewish law, and he has a two-part answer. First, he says, we need to love God with all that we are, but our love for God really can't be separated from the way we treat one another. We need to love each otehr as tenderly as we care for ourselves; that's the way we put our love for God into practice. The way we love one another is the way we love God, who made us all. It's that simple - and that challenging!
God help us to love with all that we are. Amen.
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