LAW OF LOVE

John 14:15 (NLT) If you love me, obey my commandments.

I want to talk to you about the law of love.  We are going to look at the law of love from Jesus’ response to a question.  And from this response, we get the account of the Good Samaritan.  In Matthew 22:37-40, we get the law of love.  We are supposed to love God with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves.  The Bible says that on this commandment of love hang all the law and the prophets.  If we do not do the law of love, all that the Bible contains falls to the ground.  Picture a curtain rod held up on each side by the law of love and then the Word of God hanging on the rod.  If you and I don’t love God and, also, love our neighbor, one or both sides of the rod will fall and the curtain, or the Word, will fall to the ground.  Everything you and I need and what we believe hangs on the law of love.

How are we to love God?  With all of our hearts, with all of our souls, with all of our strength and with all of our minds; that is how we are to love God.  Can we tell if we do love Him?  What does it look like?  I think it is easier than one might think.  In John 14:15, Jesus said that if we loved Him, we would keep His commandments.  The Word says that again in Verse 21, that if we really love Jesus, we will keep His commandments.  That is being a doer of the Word; doing what is written and what He speaks to your heart.  So, someone who is disobeying the Word, does not love Him.  The other easy way to tell if someone really loves God and is keeping the law of love is found in 1 John 4:20, “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”   If we are not walking in love to those brothers and sisters we can see, if we are not showing them the love of God, then it is very clear we do not love a God whom we cannot see.

When we understand how important the law of love is, we will make it a priority in our lives.  We will set our love on Him and others.  And then, we will begin to understand how to do both.  There are rewards if you will do these things.  Our faith will work because faith works by love.  The Word also says in Psalm 91:14-16 that when we set our love on Him, He will deliver us, show us His salvation, and give us long life.  In Psalm 145:20, it says He will preserve all that love Him.  To genuinely set your love on Him and on those He loves will bring great dividends to your life.  Learn the law of love.