From the Desk of Melissa Reinert… 

“’Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40

God calls us, according to Jesus, to LOVE. We are to love Him and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the way to please God, as we are living in His will if we do these things.

Let’s be honest for a moment. In this world, this is a challenge! It’s often difficult to put God first, to love Him fully with all our heart, soul, and mind when there are so many distractions. It can be even more difficult to love our neighbors with all the division and hatred that surrounds us. But, again, this is what God calls us to do: To love Him, first and foremost, and to love our neighbors.

One way to see if we are loving our Lord and all the “neighbors” He has intentionally placed in our lives, is if we respect God and others.

Respect is defined in two ways:

1. A feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.
2. Due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others.

We all know why we should love and respect our Lord. He created us. He rescues us. He provides our needs. He first loved us, even while we were still sinners. The list can go on and on.

We should love and respect our neighbors, even the one who thinks differently from us; even the one who is hateful to us.

Genesis 1:27, tells us that we are all created in God’s image. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 and 18 reminds us that God created us all uniquely and works through us. We should also love and respect others because God loves us all so much. So much, that He sent His one and only Son (John 3:16) to die in our stead in order that we may have eternal life with Him.