One of the things Jesus was good at, as if He wasn’t good at everything, was modeling. He took the instructions of the Law and showed His people how to live out their principles in everyday life. When He was asked which command was the greatest, He didn't treat the answer as if it was a burden to carry or a puzzle to solve. He binds it all up in a bundle of love and lays it out for us to receive.

He says simply to Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself.
He doesn’t turn the law into sentiment nor does he infer they have been replaced somehow by vague acts of kindness or religious emotion. He shows what the Law was always trying to accomplish; to form a people whose entire lives were ordered by love for Him and love for others.

This truth has a great impact on how we follow Jesus. The Way of Christ isn’t rule-keeping for the sake of keeping rules, or even to earn the favor of God. It’s not a moral performance to prove to others we are serious about our claims. It is meant to be a life shaped by wholehearted devoted love. Our thoughts, desires, words, relationships, work, worship, and choices are all gathered under this umbrella of holy invitation.
 
Jesus seeks to guard us from separating devotion from obedience. We cannot claim to love God while dismissing His ways. We can’t claim to love God while despising or neglecting the people He made in His image. Love for God and love for neighbor belong together because the God we love is the God who made, sees, and cares for our neighbor.

This is what it means to embody the priestly life of Jesus. He loved the Father fully and gave Himself for others completely. He did what Israel was called to do, and now He is teaching us, His people, to walk in His Way.  

Where are you tempted to separate love for God from obedience to His ways? Who is one neighbor God may be calling you to love more faithfully this week?

Father, teach me to love like you love. Help me not only to love you with all that I am, but also my neighbor, especially the ones I don’t like very much. Shape my life in the way of Jesus so Your love for others is visible in my life towards them. Amen.