Mateus 22

Mateus 22

Utley - It is impossible to love God and hate those made in His image (cf. 1 John 2:9–11; 3:15; 4:20). Love your neighbor as yourself is the crucial means of evaluating our love for our neighbor because few of us have any difficulty loving ourselves, so that is a perfect measure of our love for others. The dynamic in this passage is interesting -- we have no trouble (usually) loving ourselves, but this passage calls on us to love others with the same quality of love! Are you as convicted as I am? Jesus ratcheted this up in Mt 5:43-47+ calling for love of our enemies! If you are not convicted now than you are deceiving yourself! And as Jesus often had taught this love was based on deeds not words. Furthermore, it should be noted that these two commandments are integrally related so that if we say we love God but don't show love (deeds note just words) to man, we really do not love God! As John says "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth." (1Jn 3:18+)