- Christ’s greatest command love: saving souls (Mt 22:35-40)
This love is love to save the soul!
Jn 13:34, Jn 15:12-13, Rom 5:8, Jn 3:16, 1 Jn 4:9-11
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love my neighbor as myself. (Mt 22:35-40)
Mt 22:35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment to love one another. (Jn 13:34)
Jn 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
But this love is to love one another as Jesus loved us. That is, it refers to the love that Jesus gave his life to save us. We, too, should have a love that saves dying souls. (Jn 15:12-13, Rom 5:8, Jn 3:16)
Jn 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Jn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The love of God is the love that He gave His only begotten Son to die for us in order to save us. We too should have a love that saves the soul. (1 Jn 4:9-11)
1 Jn 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.