27 He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
What we miss in the English is that the word “love” only appears once in this verse, not twice. Both loving God and loving your neighbor use the same love and can’t be separated. The second phrase simply says “and your neighbor as yourself.” You can’t have one without the other. You can’t “and your neighbor as yourself.” You have to have the verb. And that verb is connected to our relationship with God. You can’t truly love your neighbor without having a sold-out love for God. Our love for God encompasses every aspect of our being. No matter how you want to divide up the human person, every part must be “all” for loving God. You can’t save some of that love for something or someone else. If it is not all, then it is less than what God wants. And it is less than what we need. God designed us to be sold out kind of people. Selfishness and sin influence our choices and we deceive ourselves into thinking we can split our loyalties and things will turn out OK. But God doesn’t simply want “OK” for us. He wants “fantastic.” If someone says they love their neighbor without a sold out love for God, they are missing the verb. Only actions connected to a sold out love for God can truly be love for our neighbor. We also can’t say that we love our neighbor and therefore we love God. Our love for our neighbor must flow out of our love for God. God first, neighbor second. If we are not sold out to God, our acts toward our neighbor might be ‘good’ in the world’s eyes, but from God’s perspective they lack the essential quality of true love. Part of true love for God flows from the recognition of our unworthiness and the resulting gratefulness for His intervention. When we find our proper place in relationship with God, then our acts reflecting God’s character toward our neighbor are really acts of love.
The Arnold Journey 