Love God and Love Others

Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment. He replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it.  Love your neighbor as yourself." Matthew 22:36-39. Sometimes our relationship with God is described as vertical and our relationships with others as horizontal.

It is easy for all of us to get out of balance, to neglect areas of our lives. We can focus too much on money or not be responsible with it. We can eat or exercise too much or not enough. We can neglect work, rest, or family. 

Jesus makes it clear that loving God is the most important but does not let us separate that from loving our neighbor. There are many ways we can love God. We can worship with other Christians, talk with God in prayer, or praise God for His love, mercy, and creativity. We can thank Him for His forgiveness and His many blessings to us each day. We can learn about Him reading/studying the Bible. We can submit our thinking to Him by bringing worries to Him, resisting critical attitudes, and dwelling on guilt. We can learn more about God through Christian books and conferences. We can focus on His goodness through Christian music. These are all good. However, if we only focus on our relationship with God we ignore His command to love others. "If you love me, keep my commandments," said Jesus. John 14:15.

We can love others by forgiving, praying for those who irritate us, sharing with those who have needs, and taking the initiative to show kindness and mercy to those in crisis. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27.

We can also get out of balance by caring for people but neglecting to know Jesus deeply. We can be so involved with church activities, attending, discussing, assisting, organizing, planning, and leading that we neglect our relationship with Christ. We can even be so busy learning the Bible that we don't talk with Jesus about what we are learning. Jesus said to the religious leaders who rejected Him, "You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life, yet you refuse to come to me to have life." John 5:39-40

Jesus makes it clear that loving God is most important and that loving others is also essential. The phrase "a mile wide and an inch deep" refers to being dedicated to one principle while neglecting another. Jesus calls us to go a mile deep in knowing Him and a mile wide in loving others.