Verse: Galatians 5:14-15
“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

Devotion
A long time ago in the Old Testament the Lord kept setting rules for His people.

The 10 commandments.

The book of Leviticus.

There were rules for everything. At the time, these rules were made to safeguard God’s people from their own destruction and to set them apart from the culture, so they would be holy in His presence.

Jump ahead a few thousands years later and Jesus arrives on the scene. And all the previous rules/laws are over. And he calls his believers to follow a new rule. Only ONE rule: “love one another as I have loved you.”

Seems simple enough. Yet it is the hardest for humans to do because it requires the sacrifice of the SELF.

Jesus loved us through sacrifice. A sacrifice that came down to him allowing his own life to be taken so others could live. He was an ultimate hero. But even better, through his sacrifice we can come into God’s presence and are able to have the power to love beyond what is humanly possible. We can set our own desires aside, and love in a way that reflects who God is.

When Paul tells the Galatians that all the other laws are fulfilled through what Jesus did he reminds them that there is a bigger picture to see. There is power to love beyond what we think we are capable of. Beyond a love that is reserved for the self: one of preservation, intuition, and comfort. Jesus’ hope through his sacrifice is that we too would be willing to go beyond what is expected of humans and love in a way that those without Jesus can’t understand.

Prayer
Lord, give us more time and space to rest in who you are so we can fully become who we are meant to be. Give us strength in places where we want to be selfish. Give us grace to improve daily and reveal to us how to let go of the self more and attach to your one simple command in a deeper way. Amen

Author: Mindy Kempista