There are many words to define love. You can ask ten different people what love means to them and you will get ten different answers all based upon what matters most to the individual. What matters most to God is that we love Him with our whole hearts, soul and mind, and just as important to Him is that we love our neighbor in the same way we love ourselves. These two things matter so much to Him that He tells us that everything else He has commanded us to do hinges on these two principles.  This isn’t complicated – love God and love people. This is what God expects of us. This is what we are supposed to do. Love!

Do you love God with all your heart, soul, and mind? Another way to ask this question is do you put God first in your life? If your answer is ‘yes’ then you are loving God in the way He wants us to love Him. Remember, God loved us so much that He gave us His only begotten Son. Next, what does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? Loving your neighbor means that you do for him whatever you would do for yourself. When you have a need, you do what’s necessary to meet that need. When you are hurt, you do what it takes to receive healing. God wants us to not be self-centered and to show our love in acts of kindness, generosity and self-sacrifice to all the people God brings into our lives. Love’s the one thing that can never hurt anyone. Love is seen in the actions it prompts. Love is revealed when we bear with the failings and weaknesses of others which may not be easy but necessary.

God wants us to have agape love in our hearts for all people regardless of their color, race or creed. Agape love is about seeing them through the eyes of God. It is about valuing them as His creation. It’s a decision that we make whether we feel like it or not. God loves us, we respond to that love by loving others. The actress, Katherine Hepburn once said “Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get only with what you are expecting to give which is everything.” Love is life’s greatest blessing and our potential to love is limitless. There is no perfect person, but there is perfect love. “A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13: 34-35).  What matters most to God is our love for Him and one another.