The Great Commandment

To love the Lord our God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength; and to love our neighbours as ourselves. (cf. Matt 22:37-40; Mk 12:30-31; Lk 10:27)

Shema (Yisrael)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." (Dt 6:4-5)

Jesus added:

"The second is this: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:31)

"All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments" (Matt. 22:40)

Why Command us to Love Another?

"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 Jn 4:11-12)

"God is love" (1 Jn 4:8)

• Receiving God’s love is redemptive
• Letting that love flow through us is transformative

"This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus" (1 Jn 4:17)

You Must Love One Another

Washing of disciples’ feet:

• He is their Lord, not slave
• He washed them individually
• He took the time
• He did not asked to be washed in return, but for them to wash one another’s feet

John 13:31-36 - "... 34 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another..."

Gary Chapman's 5 Love Languages

• 1. Words: I have loved you
• 2. Service: Ritual cleansing
• 3. Works: "Unless I wash you..."
• 4. Gifts: "This is my body ... this is my blood"
• 5. Time: He washed them individually, one by one

Clothe Yourselves

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." (Col. 3:12)

• Compassion: empathy
• Kindness: lend your strength
• Humility: see others in relations to God
• Gentleness: calibrate your approach to the other
• Patience: calibrate your speed to the other

"There is such a love, a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself onto ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them precious and valued beyond calculation. This is love beyond reason. This is the love of God." ~ John Ortberg, Love Beyond Reason

Summary

1. To love is a choice and a decision

2. God’s love redeemed us, loving others completes us

3. Love defined: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.