The Two Commandments: Love God and Love Your Neighbor
a. How have we grown in our love and appreciation for God?
True appreciation of God should fill us with a sense of wonder and thankfulness each day of our lives as opposed to an unthankful attitude (Romans 1:21).
Our thankfulness barometer should be full every day and our capacity to be thankful should be increasing every year. This thankfulness also extends to areas beyond our understanding – in everything give thanks (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
There are two roads in growing older each year: the road of complaining and depression or the road of thankfulness and cheer.
b. How much more of God have we grown to know?
Eternal life is knowing God (John 17:3). This growth is propelled by a desire to know Him and to seek Him. Unfortunately, in this temporal world it requires a quality decision to seek God which involves an element of diligence (Hebrews 11:6). This is not the outward seeking of good works, but the internal energizing of the heart by the Spirit of God.
The key here is not just seeing how much more religiosity or works we have increased year by year but rather whether the internal energizing that we are experiencing (that drives us each day to know God) is increasing year by year.
If we do it right by entering the rest and allowing the working of grace in our lives, we should have more spiritual energy this year than last year. If our inward man is renewed day by day for the whole of last year, then as we begin this year we should have the increased accumulation of energy from the last year (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Eternal life does not begin when we leave this physical body, eternal life begins now while we are still in this limited body by the reception of the transforming life of Christ into our hearts (2 Corinthians 4:6). In a sense, the question to ask is have we received more of God’s life within us throughout the last year – for our knowledge of God is directly proportional to the reception of God’ s life into our hearts.
c. How much more have we allowed God to demonstrate His love through us?
The measure of our love for the invisible God is measured directly by the measure of love that we demonstrate for others (1 John 4:20-21). Have we grown more selfish in the past year or more generous in the past year? Have we cared for the needy, the poor, the destitute, the downtrodden around us?
It is important that we do not distance ourselves from the need to directly care for others (besides caring for our loved ones) for in doing so we are doing it as unto the Lord (Matthew 25:31-46).
2. Relationship with people
a. Relationship with our loved ones
Firstly, we need to grow in our thankfulness for our loved ones. Too many people take their loved ones for granted. We should thank God for our parents, brothers, sisters and children each day. The death of love begins with the death of thankfulness. It is not possible to be angry and thankful at the same time. In all families we should maintain the spirit of thankfulness (1 Timothy 2:1).
Secondly, we need to grow to understand that part of love is the giving of ourselves to another. In that respect, a measure of sacrifice is involved (or inconvenience). Life is not just about personal satisfaction and gratification, but it is about the giving of ourselves in love to those nearest around us (our neighbour – which begins in our own home).
Look at the sacrificial love that Ruth had for her mother in law (book of Ruth). She left her homeland, not thinking of herself and devoted her life to taking care of Naomi. In the end God blessed her and she became the great grandmother of King David.
b. Relationship with our friends
Many people do not know how to live a balanced relationship with friends nor how to form the right type of close relationships with friends. They are either too demanding or too distant. Friends know how to respect each other’s boundaries and not to cross moral, social or family lines.
If you do not have close friends in your life, you are the problem and not others. Either your standards are so high that only the Lord Jesus qualifies to be your friend or your fear of getting hurt is of such low threshold that you do not allow anybody close to you.
If you have not developed more new friendships last year, you have not really grown in this area but remain stagnant. Jesus was able to be a friend to both His disciples and to people of various social strata (Matthew 11:19; John 15:14). Secondly, the type and quality of friends you make is also a true reflection of who you are (Psalm 1:1); just as the type of books you read is also a true reflection of who you are.
Your friends should not just be those whom you need help from but those whose relationship you treasure and desire to grow with in the Lord. Neither should they be friends who are Yesmen who only tell you what you want to hear but tell you what you need to hear - telling you the truth all the time even things which you might disagree with but that you need to hear.
In the light of eternity, these are the human spirits embodied in physical bodies who came into this life in the same generation to prod us along the right path. Do not just let the natural course of physical life direct your choice of friendship – business, ministry, church, social, etc. Rather pray diligently and be sensitive to those human spirits who are placed in this life at the same time as you and with whom you really have a spiritual and eternity connection.
c. Relationship with enemies
It is more important to convert an enemy than to slay an enemy. For this reason, Jesus commands us to love unconditionally even those who oppose us (Matthew 5:44). Part of the growth in this life is to learn to respond correctly to our enemies (Luke 6:22-23).
We should be way past the point of learning to forgive others and it should be an automatic thing for us by now if we have understood and have absorbed the full impact of the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:12). How can we truly say we are followers of Christ who loved us while we were yet sinners and enemies of God, and not follow His example? (Romans 5:8-10).
It is when we have grown into this level of unconditional love that we understand what true spirituality means. We should never render evil for evil but grow to the extent that even in our thoughts, we do not think evil towards anyone or anything (1 Corinthians 13:5).
3. Areas in which we should be affected in our love
a. Mental and knowledge wise
Part of the growth process is to advance in knowledge and wisdom: knowledge and wisdom in how to treat others, knowledge and wisdom in how to engage people in a proper balanced relationship of give and take, sensitivity to the needs and concerns of others, etc.
Wisdom in social skills is an important part of this growth. Like everything else in life, we should not just think that we know all things but rather seek out books written by those with knowledge and wisdom in developing social skills.
Whatever our profession or social status, it bears us well to learn to develop social skills. Social skills will not come automatically, we learn or lack learning from the examples of those around us (parents, friends, etc.). 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 is a good place to start in learning social skills.
b. Emotional wisdom
Although we learn that it is important to follow our faith and not our feelings, it does not excuse us from dealing with our inner emotions and bringing them into harmony with love, joy and peace. It is not enough just to know that we should love God and love people, but it is also important to feel love towards God and feel love towards people.
Look deep within you, how do you really feel about God? And how do you feel towards those around you? Are there any loose unkind or bad feelings still lingering within your subconscious? If there are, it is important to allow the Holy Spirit to bring them to the surface to be dealt with.
Every bad feeling or unkind
feeling within us has a root cause. Unless and until the root
cause is dealt with, those disharmonious feelings will never
go away. All our feelings should grow into the fruit of the
spirit with time (Galatians 5:22-23).
When our head and our heart are in harmony, we will not only know that we have love for God and love for people but also be able to feel love towards God and towards all people. In the Spiritual World, there are paths of growth in the knowledge and wisdom areas but there are also paths of growth in the feelings and emotive areas.
Those who only seek growth in one path are lopsided and are prevented from further growth by their own lack of balance. Emotional growth (which affects all our ability to relate to others) is a very important path of growth neglected by modern society which places too much importance only in knowledge and skills. Thus, you have highly skilled and knowledgeable people with a stunted babyhood emotional level of maturity with absolutely zero skills in relating to others.
On the other hand, those who are mature emotionally with very little knowledge and skill have somehow managed to do reasonably well in life and society.
So dear ones, do not just excel in knowledge and wisdom but also excel in developing your ability to feel and experience compassion and understanding - developing your emotional maturity as well.
