But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

The Bible commands us to love. Love is one of the main attributes I think of when I think about the life of Jesus, He demonstrated unconditional love to everyone He met. One person that comes to mind is the woman who had been bleeding for years and touched his robe in the crowd. Jesus felt power leave His body and stopped to talk to her and say that it was her faith in Him that had healed her. Another person that comes to mind is the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof by his friends into the completely packed room that Jesus was teaching in. Not only did Jesus physically heal him, but He also forgave the man’s sins, which is something that only God can do. Jesus also showed love to the outcasts and sinners who were normally ignored and looked over by the Jews. He even made the ultimate sacrifice by leaving Heaven to come down to Earth and be tortured and killed by the people He loved. He died to save those who killed Him. If that isn’t an act of love, I don’t know what is!

We know the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses in the Old Testament, but have you ever noticed that the word love is not mentioned at all? All of the Ten Commandments are centered around the concept of love, but the word is not actually mentioned. However, we see the direct command to love in the two greatest commandments. In the book of Mark, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is and this is His response: “Jesus answered, ‘The most important is, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And 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 12:29-31). Jesus tells us that the most important things we are commanded to do are to love God and love other people. My parents taught the preschool Sunday school class at church for many years and the one thing that they made sure to repeat every week was that those were those two greatest commandments. If the kids who went through that class throughout the years remember nothing else, they will remember that their teachers taught them to love God and love others, and that their teachers lived out what they taught every week.

In Luke 10, Jesus has a similar interaction with a lawyer, but the lawyer already knew the greatest commandments. This time, the man wanted to know who his neighbor was. In my parents’ Sunday school class, they would pose this question to the kids and they would always proudly answer, “So-and-so is my neighbor!” It was the sweetest thing and they were absolutely right, however, there is so much more to it than just who lives next door or across the street. Jesus responded to the man with the story of the Good Samaritan. The story starts with a man who was traveling and ran across robbers who beat him up and left him to die on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite (who were both supposed to be good examples in the faith) separately walked by and when they each saw him, they crossed to the other side of the street to avoid him. A Samaritan, who would have been outcast or ignored by most people, walked by and instead of doing what the others had done and crossing the street to avoid any interaction, he stopped to help the man. The Samaritan cared for the other man’s wounds right then and there, then he put the man on his animal and brought him to an inn to heal and recover. He paid for the man to stay, asked the innkeeper to take care of him, and promised to reimburse the innkeeper for whatever extra money was spent on the man. At the end of the story, Jesus asked which of the three men on the road was a true neighbor to the man who had been beaten and left. Who do you think played the role of a neighbor in that story? After letting the kids name their neighbors who live on their streets, my mom always reminded her little preschoolers that our neighbor is anyone who needs our help. Jesus tells us to love God and to love people. How do you show that you love God and love other people in your life?

Abbi