Mat. 22:37-39 ... "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
When any religion, philosophy, or course of action is studied, the question is soon asked about its fundamental principle or guiding concept. If there is any order, cohesion, and discernible progress involved, then there will be some motivating force at the center to develop that order, weld all the parts into a cohesive action, and produce the forward movement. People who study religions, philosophies, and movements in the human sphere look very closely for the fundamental principles, for unless one can identify and understand them, he cannot rationally explain the whole system.
The religion which God has given us certainly has basic principles that give order, cohesion, and vital energy to it. Fortunately, God has not left it to men in their own perception to discover and explain them. Were this the case, there is little doubt that there would be considerable disagreement about the identity of the principles. In fact, some even refute the ones that are divinely revealed and postulate others in contempt of God's declaration. But what is written is written, and men of faith will accept it as truth. In the text above, Jesus reveals the fundamental principle of the religion handed down to us from God. It can be expressed in a single four-letter word: LOVE.
Not any kind of love, but love in its purest and holiest form. It is the love that flows from the heart of God through His Son Jesus unto people who are redeemed by the blood of His atonement. From these Christians it is supposed to flow outward unto all other people throughout the world. It is not the love based in carnal senses which are easily inflamed by lust and then quickly extinguished by sensual gratification. Nor is it the love based in human emotions that ebbs and flows with one's moods. It is the essential love grounded in the soul and stabilized by direct linkage to the immutable God who is its Source.
Jesus said the entire Mosaic Law depends on the basic principle of love. So does the new law of the Gospel, (I Cor. 13). The person who submits himself to the Christian religion must adopt love as the controlling force in his life. This love must be directed first and most powerfully toward God in response to His superior love toward us. We are taught that "we love [God] because He first loved us," (I Jno. 4:19). Our loving God will be manifested in obedience to His will, (Jno. 14:15), in genuine expressions of gratitude for His goodness, in worship to Him in spirit and in truth on a regular basis, and in imitation of His character.
Whoever submits himself to the Christian religion must also follow the rule of loving other people as much he loves himself. This includes loving those who are not lovable, who do not deserve your love, and who may even be your enemies. This love will demonstrate itself in doing what is in the best interest of the other person. This may even include discipline, which may not at the time be recognized as the operation of love, (Heb. 12:5-11). To monitor our love for others to assure its equality to love for self, we have been given by Jesus a rule that may be considered a corollary to the fundamental principle of love: "Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them," (Mat. 7:12). How can you know the way to love others as you love yourself? Just consider how you wish to be treated, as well as the spirit in which that treatment is given. Then render that very treatment in that kind of spirit to others. By such love we will identify ourselves to the world as the children of God far more convincingly than by anything else we might say or do, (I Jno. 4:7-8).
