The Most Important Commandment

November 19

Life requires us to keep track of so many things. Check books must be balanced, mortgage payments must be made on time, utility bills must be paid. Even laundry must be done with regularity and in a reasonable, timely fashion. To neglect these things is to add to our lives the burdens that come when we are irresponsible.

To avoid bounced checks, terse notices and penalties from unhappy lenders, the inconvenience of curtailed electric service, or even the simple matter of running out of clean underwear, we must assume the responsibility for these demands of life—as the old saying goes, “If you dance to the music, you must pay the piper.”

Though the ramification of our neglect of these matters may be that we are inconvenienced, there are greater areas of responsibility that require our utmost diligence to assume. Jesus Himself pointed these out in Mark 12:29-31. Because the Lord stated their importance, it behooves us to comply with His recommendation, to fully assent to His words.

Jesus said, “The most important commandment is this…the Lord our God is One! Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind and all your strength. The second is like it, that you love your neighbor as yourself.” If we give due diligence to these spiritual essentials, we will not have any interruption of the flow of His Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.