Matthew 22

Devotional:
Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40).

Jesus declares here that Yahweh’s great commandment is love: love of God and love of neighbor. “God is love” (1 John 4:8) and love is, therefore, as boundless as God. And so, in inaugurating the New Covenant, Jesus directs his disciples to expand love’s reach even beyond God and neighbor, causing it to flow into, permeate, and epitomize His Church: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13: 34-35). Friends, “let us love one another” (1 John 4:7)!

Pray it:
Father, thank you for the great love that you have lavished upon me. Help me to reflect and show that love to others around me, loving you through loving those whom you made and have placed around me. May I and my sisters and brothers in the faith be known as people of love. Amen.

Share it:
Who is someone you can share a verse or thought from this passage with?