The Greatest Commandment

Jesus said that the Greatest Commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. In this, Jesus said, was the totality of the law and the prophets.  But what does it mean to love God this way?

The heart is the center of one's being. In it are contained a person's desires which are the engines of motivation and accomplishment.  To love God with all one's heart means to center one's emotions, desires, needs and wants entirely in God, or under the control and guidance of God. What we desire for ourselves is not the problem, but instead the problem is where are the desires directed and for what end? For example, if your desire is to be successful in business, then that desire does not need to be changed, just transformed by one's love for God into an avenue which serves the greater good. God wants us to be prosperous and happy, but if we lack love we will find that our success will quickly turn to failure, and our desire will no longer serve us.  Our sexual desires are normal and nothing to be feared, however if they are used for selfish purposes and not for love, they can destroy us.  So you see, desire and emotion are not the problem, the problem arises when they are directed away from love of God and towards some other love, usually love of self or material possessions.

The mind is the center of thought activity.  By thinking we allow suggestions to filter to the heart, where desire and emotion can generate energy to bring those thoughts into being.  If our thoughts are wild and undisciplined, then our desires, emotions, and motivations will be as well.  If, however, our thoughts are centered upon the love of God, then we will think rightly and send good and powerful suggestions down into our heart, which will result in great success and achievement both for ourselves and our neighbors.

The soul is our true self.  It is the I which hides behind the false me which was created as protection from the pain of this world system.  The false me cannot exist in the light of God's love; it is burned in the fire of the Spirit. By loving God with all my soul, the true I is set in a prominent place, and the false me is slowly transformed in love.

One's strength is the totality of their gifts.  It is the means by which I express power in the created realm.  When I am unfocused and undisciplined, my gifts go to waste, and my strength is weakened or used by another for their benefit.  However, when I love God with all my strength, and offer my gifts to him in service and love, then I am truly powerful.  I am free to express my power as I see fit, and to use my gifts properly and completely.

Loving one's neighbor as oneself is the ultimate revelation of a true interior love of God.  If one does not love one's neighbor, then they truly do not love God.  And if they do not love God, then their religion is based on a love of self.  They have received their reward, as Jesus said so well.

As the presidential election season progresses, all the Republican candidates continue to claim to follow God and Christ.  Yet they act as people with no love for their neighbor.  They advocate war with Iran, economic policies which enrich the few at the expense of many, and social policies which divide us into sinners and saints.  Compassion, which for a Christian should be the whole of one's existence, is not evident.  One can say with certainty, that while these men claim to be Christians, they have no love of God in their hearts.  Their religion is reflected in love of self through the achievement of earthly power.

Let us learn from these men.  If we claim to follow Christ, then we must love God and one another.  Anything less is not only dishonest, but highly dangerous for our spiritual progress.