Kong Hee: Learning To LoveSample

Loving Others With The Right Heart Jesus had a knack for stumping the wisest men of Israel with some of the simplest statements. In Matthew, we read of a Pharisee, an “expert in the law,” who sought to expose Jesus for a fraud by asking him a difficult spiritual question: “What is the greatest commandment?” Christ’s reply was essentially to love God wholeheartedly and in turn, to love others fervently. Many Christians today might take this answer for granted. We say, “Of course, God is love and Christians are to love God and love others.” But let us be honest for a moment and ask, do our lives reflect Christ’s answer to that question? Or does it seem we are as clueless about the answer as was the Pharisee who asked it? Christ’s words in Matthew are not intended to teach us to love others only as much as we love ourselves, as though someone who does not particularly like themselves is only expected to love others with that same pitiful measure of love. The Pharisee who asked the question was used to living his spiritual life in measures of degree, weighing each act of religious activity—each coin he gave at the temple and each moment he spent helping others. At the end of the day, his relationship with God was measured in degrees of religiousness. Many of us may find ourselves attempting to love others in this same mindset. Christ does not command us to love others as a checkmark on a list, but as a sacrifice of our very selves. Our example is Christ. Will you obey this great command today? Prayer for the Day: Today, pray God will change any part of your heart that behaves like a Pharisee—seeking only to love others for your own purposes. Ask Him to change you to respond to others as a person whose heart has been renewed by the sacrificial love of Christ. And ask God to give you opportunity to purposefully show His love to others today.