The Two Instructions of Jesus

There are two instructions given to us by Jesus that should guide us in our spiritual life;

to love God with our entire being

to love ourselves and our neighbor 

By following these instructions Jesus told us that we would fulfill all the Commandments of God.

Jesus said;

“You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.

And the second is like to this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Matthew 22:37-39

To Love God with Our Entire Being:

Humans were created good and holy and we were made in the image of God. When God created us, He placed within each of us His Uncreated Spirit, the Seed of Love into our souls and clothed us in His Unperishable Light. It was through pride that our first parents lost the Original Grace that God bestowed on them and with this a destructive seed was planted, causing a rift in our being. Our soul is our spiritual connection with God and connects our heart and mind. Before the fall there was harmony between the heart, mind and soul with the soul always purifying the other two. After the fall the harmony was disrupted and now the reasoning mind with its passions and the ego that controls the heart directs the soul and our connection with God has become shrouded. We still possess the Seed of Love in our souls but it is veiled by the destructive seed which gives strength to our ego and passions.

The heart, the soul and the mind constitute the whole of our being and in order to love God perfectly we must love Him completely with our entire being.

Jesus Christ is the Unconditional Love of God and became Love on earth and showed us the Way of Love. It is through Jesus Christ, the Word Made Flesh that the Seed of Love in our souls can be unshrouded and once again take its place of supremacy over the ego and the passionate mind. Harmony between the heart, the mind and the soul will be restored and the Seed of Destruction can be contained in a circle of Love and then we can love God perfectly.

To Love Ourselves and Our Neighbor:

To love oneself is not a selfish act. It is foundational to our ability to love another person. To hate ourselves is a destructive act against our soul. Within our soul dwells the Spirit of God so to hate ourselves is to do so against God. Before we can love others, we must love ourselves.

Treating others with love is to love ourselves. We are all connected through the Spirit of God and this makes us all one. To look upon the face of another is to see the face of God. So, showing love is to respect God, the Source of all life.

The love that is called for is not the gushy love of the romantic. The love asked for is the wish for the wellbeing of another. It is the hope that another will be blessed by God. It is the wish that another will be given health, peace and joy in their life. This love is given indiscriminately to the people we care for and to those who hate us. What good we wish for ourselves we also wish for others. 

To love unconditionally is to have no hatred, suspicion or judgment. It is to face the world with an open heart rather than suspicion. The world is not rejected or distanced from us but embraced. In ordinary reality, the ostracized are shunned but in the Kingdom of Jesus we reach out to them. To love unconditionally with our entire being is to show our love for God.

Compassion must always be shown to those who are suffering. We must always keep before our eyes the fact that we too have suffered. That we too are flawed and weak and have made terrible mistakes in our life. No human being is perfect. We strive to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect but, in this world, we will never attain perfection. We must be sensitive to what others are going through and we must share in their suffering.