Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
One of My Covenant Names is Yahweh Shammah, which means the LORD is there. I am, I was, and I will always be there with you and for you and that has to do with My love for you. When you seek Me with all your heart, you will find Me already there with you. Every time you speak to Me or call Me, I answer for I am there waiting, hovering, guiding, loving, healing, comforting, forgiving, smiling with arms open wide waiting for you to draw close and call. I am not hiding from you.
You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me. Psalm 139:5-10.
And walking in the Spirit is always being there with Me. Jesus once told you, “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.” John 12:6.
And where was Jesus when He was on earth? Going about doing good works of love as I showed Him. And where is He now? At My right-hand and you are seated there with Him and now, by My Spirit in you and on you, you are to do the works He did and greater in His Name as His body the Church, so that where you are He is. Christ in you, your hope of glory!
You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. Acts 10:38.
And just as I was with Jesus, so now I am with you. And that is walking in the Spirit, which is walking in love as Jesus did.
He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” John 14:21-24.
Walking in love has to do with walking in obedience to My commandments. Keeping My Words has to do with honor and fear of the LORD, but it will also give you joy. Remember Jesus told you that, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:9-11.
Knowing My magnificent promises that are “yes” to you in Jesus and then walking in the beauty of My Word by keeping it as commandments from the law of perfect liberty which sets you free to live in joy. Pure love is joy. In My presence, the presence of love, is fullness of joy.
One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31.
Let us first consider the first.
Whatever I command you is for your benefit to give you the best life, for I desire above all and in all that you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers by walking in the truth. And the truth is My love for you is what has brought all into being, and it is all for you to richly enjoy. Everything was made for you and in you and about you, including you yourself. I made the world for you and I made you like Me. I love you with all My heart, soul, mind and strength and I know that is the life that will make you like Me. A life of abiding in My love, receiving My love and returning My love. Treat everyone with love but only give your heart to Me. I give you precious gifts of ministers of My Word and companions for your life so that you are never alone but always surrounded by love and compassion, but I am the only one that truly has no motives other than your best interest. My first words to you were blessing and they still are, empowering you to rule the works of My hands clothed in My glory and majesty, in union with Me as your never ending source of supply.
Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord. I am One. Your audience of One. Only One matters for all that concerns you. And that is Me. Everyone else can and at times will disappoint you, often they will not understand your heart, but I know your heart and I NEVER will leave you or forsake you. And that is My Covenant with you who choose to love Me from your heart, which is sincere love in faith.
And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9.
And how are you to love? With every fiber of your being, “you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength,” and then your body will walk in health and wholeness, i.e., prosper and be in good health. The shalom blessing that is My loving plan for your life in every area of your life, in every member, organ, and part of your precious body that houses your spirit and soul.
You will notice, I emphasize that you love Me with all your heart (that is your spirit which is born again and raised up with Christ when you believe), your soul (your mind, will, and emotions), and then I single out your mind again, a part of your soul but where your thoughts are and your words and actions are determined, as worthy of special attention. Why? Because what you are feeding your mind with determines the peace, joy, health, direction and fruitfulness of your life. If you are feeding it with spirit food, which is renewing and washing your mind from your old mindset of the flesh, which was yours before you were saved by believing in and receiving Jesus as your Lord, with My Word you are being transformed from glory to glory so you may know what My good, pleasing and perfect Will for your life is and obtain your full reward before passing out of this world to eternity. And then I tell you to love Me with all your strength, which is your will but also is the diligence with which you will hold to My Word and not give up and abandon love for a lower life run by the ups and downs of your emotions as dominating your life. Which is a life walking in the flesh, which results in death because that is where your flesh is headed, but your eternal spirit and soul will receive a new and glorified body to match your resurrected spirit on the Last Day. What a glorious day that will be for those who are walking in love. For you will just walk right out of this world as it is now into the realm of My Kingdom, which is of the spirit and not the flesh.
And that beautiful place of love is beyond all you can ask or imagine. A place of pure love is the most precious and beautiful treasure anyone can ever find. And yet it belongs to you who have entered covenant with My Son—the everlasting Covenant of love.
When you are walking in love, My kind of love, there is no need to worry about breaking a commandment, for every commandment can be summed up in one word: “Love.”
Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:8-9.
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. Galatians 5:13-15.
Jesus has released you from your sins by His blood for one reason: love.
To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6.
No greater love than this: to lay down your life for your friends (believers who know what I am about).
This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. This I command you, that you love one another. John 15:12-17.
Love is not selfish, but seeks the good of others. But in seeking good for others is your glory before Me. I raised Jesus, who humbled Himself to serve you and Me, to the highest place and gave Him the Name above every other name. And by offering Himself for you, He gave you the dignity of royalty, for I have made Him King of kings and Lord of lords.
If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. James 2:8.
The greatest one among you is the one who serves the rest, but not because he was forced to do so as slavery by the oppression of another but by choice for love of the one served, that is, for the One to whom you are actually serving in serving others. Me.
Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free. Ephesians 6:5- 8.
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Colossians 3:23-24.
Love is strong. Love never fails. Love is never weak. Love never gives in to evil but stands in the truth.
“Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, Its ardor is as inflexible as Sheol; its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers overflow it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.” Song of Songs 8:6-7.
I love you and My love for you took My Son from Heaven to earth in order to release you from your sins by His suffering and death, sent Him down to the grave and to the pit of hell so you would never taste death, and then raised Him up to the Highest Heaven, and raised you with Him. Know and believe in the love I have for you for faith in that love is the victory that overcomes the world. Love is the greatest power of all. And I have poured My love into your heart by My gift of the Holy Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is walking in love.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for you, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. Ephesians 5:1-2.
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 2 Corinthians 2:14.