Welcome to Day 178 of the “Manna for the Mind” devotional! This series is about finding nourishment in the Word of God to get us through the day. In each devotional, I take a variety of scripture passages (typically 1-3 verses each) and build our understanding of what they teach via their context and connecting scripture. My goal is to help you understand how to be the type of human God created you to be. Today’s passage is Matthew 22:37-39.

Matthew 22:37-39

NASB	NLT	VOICE
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.’	37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’	37 “Love the Eternal One your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your mind.”
38 This is the great and foremost commandment.	38 This is the first and greatest commandment.	38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’	39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’	39 And the second is nearly as important, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus said that if we truly love God and our neighbors, we will naturally keep the commandments. Hear this, especially for those who want to discredit the rules and commandments of the Bible: if we focus our lives by loving God and loving our neighbors, we will inherently follow the commandments. This is a very positive outlook on God’s law. What that looked like in BC 1500 to AD 70 to AD 2025 will be different. However, the mindset is still the same. Instead of looking at God’s law with the mindset of what is not allowed or what we can’t do, we should focus on what we can do now to show God’s love to him and to our community.

Deuteronomy 6:5

NASB	NLT	VOICE
5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength	5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.	5 You should love Him, your True God, with all your heart and soul, with every ounce of your strength.

Jesus referred to this verse as the first and greatest commandment. We should love God with all parts of ourselves. To love God with your heart, using your emotions, love, and compassion to care for his community and creation. To love God with your soul, making it the essence of what we say and do. To make our identity found in God be the foundation of how we present ourselves the world. To love God with all our strength, allowing us to be his hands and feet in the world today.

Leviticus 19:18

NASB	NLT	VOICE
18 You shall not take vengeance, nor hold any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.	18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.	18 Do not seek revenge or hold a grudge against any of your people. Instead, love your neighbor as you love yourself, for I am the Eternal One.

This verse was so important that it was quoted three times. Jesus referred to it as one of the greatest commandments. Paul quoted it show how love fulfills the commandments. James quotes it and calls it the “royal law.” Three is often represented as perfection and completeness. This is a complete command that we should abide by. Don’t look for revenge. Don’t hold grudges. These things give you something to do, but they don’t get you anywhere. We love each other as we love ourselves. If you struggle to love yourself, love as Jesus loves.

Matthew 5:43

NASB	NLT	VOICE
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’	43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.	43 You have been taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

By telling us not to retaliate, Jesus is keeping us from taking the law into our own hands. By loving and praying, we can overcome evil with good. We need God’s supernatural help to love people who commit cruel and evil acts. We can defeat evil with kindness. We can defeat evil with positive intentions. We should still act in love and kindness, but we don’t have to retaliate.

The Pharisees interpreted Leviticus 19:18 as teaching that they should love only those who love them. They interpreted the words of Psalms 139:19-22 and 140:9-11 as meaning that they should hate their enemies. Jesus calls us to love our enemies, a revolutionary concept to the people of their time. They were already instructed to love their neighbor, but to love their enemies was new to them.

If we act in love for our enemies by treating them well, we share that Jesus truly rules over our life. This becomes possible when we give our lives fully over to Jesus and follow him as our Lord and Savior. When we do this, he can deliver us from our selfish and prideful desires. We must trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to teach us how to love those that we struggle to love.

Romans 13:10

NASB	NLT	VOICE
10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore Love is the fulfillment of the Law	10 Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.	10 Does love hurt anyone? Absolutely not. In fact, love achieves everything the law requires.

We must follow the law of love, which supersedes any religious and civil laws. It’s easy for us to excuse our indifference to others because we are not required to help anyone, and could even justifying harming someone as long as it’s not in a legal manner. Jesus keeps us within law of love. Whenever love is needed, we are to go beyond the legal requirement and imitate God. Regardless of what the societal norms are, our goal at the end of the day is to love others as God loves us and go beyond the societal norm to meet the needs of our neighbor and community.

Next slice of Manna: Manna for the Mind #179