VIKTOR SAARI MINISTRIES

 What’s love got to do with it? Absolutely everything! Love is the most important thing in our Christian walk. Yet most of us struggle to walk in love. We need to realise love is more important than faith, more important than hope (I Corinthians 13:13). When Jesus was asked by a lawyer in Matthew 22:35 which of all of the commandments was the greatest, Jesus responded with the answer. Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. But notice He did not stop there, no He went on. He did not give the lawyer a chance to ask another question. Jesus continued and said the second is like it, thou shalt love your neighbour as yourself. And on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Matthew 22.36-40:

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

³⁷ Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.

³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment.

³⁹ A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

We see here how important the law of love is. In John 13:34-35 we see that this is our new commandment, that we should love one another. Just as He (Jesus) has loved us, we too should love one another. This shows the measure we are to love others. In John 15:13 Jesus also says that there is no greater love than one laying down His life for his friends. This is exactly what Jesus did for us. So the question is, are you a friend of Jesus? Do you love like this? Because in the 14^th verse of John 15 Jesus also says this:

¹⁴Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

To be a friend of Jesus, in His own words means to show the kind of love like laying down your life for a friend. This is so powerful, maybe even a bit scary. If you have not been loving people and showing patience with them, you are not doing what He commanded. The Church must come to the realisation of just how much love we are to be showing people. Because if we do not show love, the Bible makes it very clear, we do not know God.

I John 4.8:

⁸He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.

I John 4.20 also gives us a powerful statement to the subject of love:

²⁰If 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?

We are hypocrites if we say we love God and yet show hatred towards our fellow man. We cannot hate a co-worker, a boss, a friend or a family member. Realise we are to above all walk in love. It is the most important thing. As we saw in I John 4:8 God is love and when we show love we become more like our Father in heaven. Believe me, there is nothing that makes Him more proud. Because when we are walking in love we are walking in obedience.

In this world there are not too many things that you can stand out in from the point of talent or a gifting. There are many people that can do and have done many things that even if you worked your whole life, you could not attain. But, there is one thing you can achieve today, which many have not, nor will ever achieve in their life time. It will make you stand out more than records athletes set, more than the wealth of the world and more than anything you ever accomplish for yourself. Because people do not really care in the end what you have accomplished, if it is only your name that sits atop a list.

No, in the end and the reason you will be remembered by people, is because what you have shown them. Notice I didn’t say given them, as in material things. If you will show love to people, they are going to know you are different. This is how the Bible says people are to know that we are Jesus’ disciples, by our love (John 13:35). So what are you going to do today? Are you going to follow the new commandment given by Jesus, the law of love in which everything else in your Christian walk hangs? Are you going to make an impact on people by love? Are you going to leave your mark? Or are you just going to go on your own merry way? If so, ask your self this question. Why would God command you to do something, if it was not to your benefit?