Author Archives: Simon

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: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31

Louis Armstrong

I love listening to music. There are some pieces of music that I could listen to over and over again. One of these is the song ‘What a Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong. There’s a line in this song that moves me to tears, every time I hear it. Louis sings, ‘I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do, they’re really saying I love you’. I think this moves me so much because I know it to be true. There are people in my life whom I maintain a polite, friendly relationship with but, when push comes to shove, yes, I probably do love them. On the other hand there are also people who I find unkind, or irritating whom I would probably not be inclined to say I loved!

In chapter 12 of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus explains that the second most important commandment is to love our neighbour. Elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus is asked who is our neighbour and recounts the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this story he shows that we are in fact to be love all people, not just those we more readily get along with.

Loving our neighbour, therefore, is quite a challenge. There will inevitably be people whom we find it very hard to love. It may be that we struggle to love a particular person who has hurt us or upset us. It may be that we find it hard to love a particular group of people who we feel are cruel, or uncaring, or even inhumane. Yet we are called to love these people.

Love is both an attitude and an action. We should not hold negative, unloving thoughts about others, but rather try to find reasons to love them. At its most basic, that might be remembering that they were created in God’s image, and we might, therefore, see something of God in them if we look hard enough.

Love should also characterise our actions towards others. We should speak well of people, refraining from nastiness or malicious gossip. And we should strive to love people practically, as God loves us. That might be by being a support for them, by listening to them, by providing for them in their hour of need.

Let’s strive in the days, weeks, and months ahead to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

Originally presented as a Thought of the Day on the Premier Christian Radio ‘Inspirational Breakfast’ show.

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: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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 12:28-30

Image by justintosh@flickr and made available under this licence.

I love going to the cinema. I also love sailing, and long walks in the countryside. I love sitting on a beach reading a good book in the sun. I also love my wife, my children, my parents, and my brother and sister.

Love is one of those funny words in English. We say that we ‘love’ all kinds of things. The love that we might have for our family or friends is clearly different to the love that we might have for something like the cinema or the beach though!

Love for a person is something that requires a conscious action. It’s not enough to just say that we love someone, we have to demonstrate this.

The same is true for our love of God. It’s not enough just to say we love God. We have to demonstrate our love through our actions.

In chapter 12 of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus deals with how we should love God. He tells a teacher of the law that the most important commandment is to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Our love for God needs to flow from deep within. This love is more than a flippant statement of love, but something that resonates inside our being. Jesus makes it clear that our entire being, physical and spiritual, is to be dedicated to loving God. All the thoughts and ideas that float around within our heads need to be directed to loving God. Jesus tells us here that to love God we need to commit not just ourselves but all of our money and possessions to God.

What sounds initially like a fairly straightforward commandment is actually incredibly challenging. Indeed, there is no way that we, as fallen humans, are capable of living up to the standards that God has set us. But with the help of the Holy Spirit we can strive to do our very best to live lives that honour God and make clear to all of those around us that we have a deep love for the God who made us, who knows us, and who offers us salvation through Jesus Christ.

Let’s commit ourselves to striving to love God in all that we do today, and in the days, weeks and months to come.

Originally presented as a Thought of the Day on the Premier Christian Radio ‘Inspirational Breakfast’ show.