February 11: The Greatest Commandment
Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)
"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. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Read The Full Devotional Below.
The Hardest, Clearest Command
Love God. Love people. Simple, right?
We recite it in church. We teach it to our kids. We nod along in agreement, convinced we understand it. But if we’re honest, we struggle with both parts. Loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind? That requires full surrender. And loving our neighbor as ourselves? That forces us to see people the way God does—not just the ones who are easy to love, but the ones we avoid.
That’s where this commandment stops being a feel-good statement and starts being a challenge. Because love isn’t just sentiment—it’s action. And the people God calls us to love aren’t always the ones we would choose.
A Love That Costs Something
For most of my life, I had a rule—an unspoken one, but one I lived by religiously. If you weren’t in my immediate circle, you weren’t worth my time. Simple as that. I wasn’t rude or outwardly dismissive, but I held tightly to the belief that my energy was a finite resource. And I wasn’t about to waste it on people who wouldn’t benefit me in some way.
I told myself this was wisdom. I clung to the idea that “you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” and I let that justify my exclusivity. If someone couldn’t elevate me, teach me something, or align with my vision, I didn’t give them a second thought. In my mind, keeping my circle small and selective wasn’t just strategic—it was necessary.
I was wrong.
I remember the day that belief system got flipped on its head. I was talking with a mentor—someone I deeply respected, someone who had the kind of life wisdom I was eager to learn from. He listened as I rattled off my carefully curated philosophy, nodding thoughtfully. Then he smiled, leaned in, and dropped a sentence that wrecked me:
“Adam, do you know who God often uses to teach you the most profound lessons? Not your best friends. Not the people you admire. Not even your mentors. It’s the ones who rub you the wrong way. The ones you’d rather avoid. The ones you don’t even see.”
I let out a breathy laugh, thinking he was joking. He wasn’t.
“The person you cross the street to avoid? The one whose conversation you cut short because they don’t interest you? The guy at the grocery store who’s moving too slow in line? The coworker who always has a story to tell that you don’t want to hear? Adam, those are the people God is putting in your path—not as obstacles, but as opportunities.”
His words sat heavy in my chest. Because I knew he was right.
For years, I had unknowingly treated people like transactions. I wasn’t loving my neighbor—I was evaluating them. Determining whether they were worthy of my time, my energy, my presence. But what if love had nothing to do with worthiness? What if it had everything to do with obedience?
That was the day my perspective began to change. I started to pay attention to the people I used to overlook. I forced myself to engage in conversations that didn’t benefit me. I challenged myself to see, really see, the humanity in others—their struggles, their hopes, their fears.
And do you know what happened? I started learning. Not just about them, but about myself. I started seeing my own arrogance for what it was. I started noticing how transactional my love had been. And I started experiencing something unexpected—joy.
There is a unique joy in loving people who have nothing to offer you in return. There is a refining fire in choosing kindness when it’s inconvenient. And there is an unmistakable presence of God when you love the way He commands—freely, abundantly, without calculation.
Loving others is not just about kindness—it’s about obedience to Christ’s command. It’s about seeing people through the eyes of Jesus, recognizing that no one is beneath His love, no one is an accident, and no one is disposable. The reality is, when we love people, even those we don’t think deserve it, we are reflecting Christ Himself.
We don’t get to choose which of God’s commands to follow. If we say we love Him, then we must also love those He created. It’s a package deal. And when we resist, when we ignore or dismiss people, we are resisting the very heart of God.
The Radical Call of Love
Loving God fully and loving others selflessly are not separate commands. They are intertwined. You cannot claim to love God and simultaneously disregard the people He has created.
Jesus made it clear: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40, ESV).
The way we treat others—especially those we find difficult, inconvenient, or unworthy—is a direct reflection of how we treat Christ. Love is not a suggestion. It is the very essence of who we are called to be. It is the evidence that we belong to Him.
How Do We Live This Out?
Expand Your Circle – Who do you actively avoid? Who do you dismiss without a second thought? Challenge yourself to engage with them instead of avoiding them.
Serve Without Expectation – True love gives without keeping score. Find a way to serve someone who has nothing to offer you in return.
Pray for a Heart Like Christ’s – Ask God to help you see people through His eyes. Ask Him to replace judgment with compassion, annoyance with grace.
Interrupt Your Routine – Love is often inconvenient. Be willing to slow down, to listen, to engage with those who may not fit into your plans for the day.
Make Love a Habit – Love isn’t just a feeling—it’s a practice. The more you intentionally choose to love others, the more natural it becomes.
A Prayer for Today
Father, You have commanded us to love You with everything we are and to love others as ourselves. But we confess—we fall short. We love selectively, selfishly, and conditionally. Forgive us. Change us. Open our eyes to see the people we overlook. Soften our hearts to love when it’s inconvenient. Teach us to love like You, without calculation or hesitation. Let our lives be marked by radical, selfless love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
An Invitation to go Deeper….
Are you ready to step into a deeper, more radical love? Join the FaithLabz 30-Day Prayer Challenge and let God transform your heart. True love starts with Him.
