It seems so simple – love God and love other people. If that’s all we need to do, then are the Beatles right when they sang, “All you need is love?” Does that mean the Romantics were right after all, that our feelings are the most important thing?

Well, that all depends on what we think love really is. To explain this, Jesus tells us in verse 40 that all the rest of the Law and the Prophets hang on, or are suspended from these two main ideas. Far from being “New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs” Christians, we must thus mine all of the Old Testament to determine exactly what it means to love God and to love other people.

And over and over again, God’s Word helps us understand that love is primarily expressed in actions, not in feelings. Oh, the feelings are there, but they are largely byproducts of the commitments we make. The Law explains that our love for God should be expressed in devotion, and that our love for others will necessarily work itself out in all kinds of selfless service. And the Prophets demonstrate the consequences that flow from breaking this law, from being unfaithful to God and from neglecting the needs of others.

And that’s the other thing the Prophets make clear – as Jesus points out in verses 37 and 39, our love for God and for others must be complete. We must not give other people the leftovers of our time and attention, but must care just as much about them as we do ourselves. In the same way, we must not simply make God one goal of our life, or even our highest ambition among others. No, Jesus says that God demands and deserves our exclusive love and loyalty, the worship of all that we are and all that we have.

In short, we are to give ourselves completely away to God and to others, as completely as a bride and groom give themselves to each other. In fact, the Prophets regularly use that image, accusing God’s people of infidelity when they embrace other gods or turn their backs on the needy.

So, instead of thinking that all we need to do is feel some sort of intense affection for God and for other people, we need to take Jesus’ words seriously. Are we completely sold out for God? Do we start each day focused like a laser-beam on the needs of other people? For if we are putting ourselves first in any way, that’s sin. And we need to confess it and turn away from it.

Matthew 22:33-40 (ESV)

33 And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 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.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”