When asked which commandment is the most important, Jesus answered:

"The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love. Love is both the most important commandment and the second-most-important commandment.

 

So what is love? Love for God is a rather large topic, and one for which I have not sufficient room in a single post. So let's talk about love for one another, because that's where I need possibly an eternity's worth of improvement.

 

I am not as loving as I should be. And here's why:

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Let's tackle these in order.  First up: "Love is patient". When was the last time I was impatient with someone? It's been less than an hour.

Next, the second half of that: "[Love is] kind." When was the last time I was unkind to someone? Again, it's been less than an hour.

"It is not arrogant or rude." Okay, so I haven't been arrogant per se -- whoops, there goes that. Rude? See above.

"It does not insist on its own way." Yikes. I'm 0 for 5 so far. This is not good.

"It is not irritable" -- make that 0 for 6.

"[It is not] resentful." -- Okay, first one that I've managed to do well on! .....today. And that's really only because I've had no reason to resent anyone today.

"It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth." On my own, I fail this one pretty swiftly. It's only through any work of Christ that I get that sick feeling in my stomach when I fall short of His calling. Often.

"Love bears all things" -- I didn't exactly bear much when I lost my patience earlier.

"[Love] believes all things, hopes all things" -- I'll be honest, when I lose my temper, it's a sign that I've lost sight of God's perfection and sovereignty. It is my disbelief in His perfect will that results in the false idea that somehow my way of handling things is better than God's way of handling things. That's sort of a massive assumption from arrogance on my part.

"[Love] endures all things." -- This goes hand-in-hand with the other three portions of this sentence; we can only endure all things, all "offenses" against our pride if we first regard that pride rightly (as meaningless) and instead trust in the perfection of God's will. When we rest assured that the same Christ who -- for no wrongdoing of his own -- took on all of man's sin, all of God's wrath and the contempt of all those around Him (even Simon Peter, who denied him thrice) has written the script for all time leading to His ultimate glory, then we can endure the "momentary light afflictions" of everyday life. So another person insults you -- so what? Christ was hated by all mankind while in the act of ultimate sacrifice for the same men who spat on him and shoved his whip-torn body to the ground.

 

Love for one another flows from love for God; If we truly love our God we will find our solace in Him, trusting that through His suffering and sacrifice (beyond that which we can ever face), we have been brought securely into His firm, loving grasp.

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. -- John 10:29

Only Christ -- living in us -- can give us patience. And kindness. And humility. And deference. All the things I do not have within myself.

 

And of course -- most importantly of all -- love.

 

But I promise, the words that you said stuck in our heads -- they'll come back to haunt you. To taunt you. Keep you from sleeping, keep you from eating.