Know Yourself – The Second Great Commandment

Know Yourself

The Second Great Commandment

Matthew 22.38, 39

“This is the great and the first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

John 13.3

“Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God…”

Why, after all, are you here?

Neighbor-love begins with a true understanding of who we are and why we’re here. Jesus lived every moment of His life with a clear and unobstructed sense of His calling. He possessed all power and authority from God. How would He wield it? The devil tempted Him to use it in self-interest, but Jesus knew that God’s power is to be used for God’s glory in deeds of love toward others. He also knew that He had come from God. He was an Ambassador from the heavenly court, and all His actions must reflect the mercy, compassion, long-suffering, goodness, and love that emanates from that throne. This understanding of His mission naturally propelled Him to works of love at every opportunity. Finally, Jesus always kept in mind His destination. He would return to God before long and there must give an account of His ministry. He must keep up love to the very end, and not withhold it even toward those who would betray and abandon Him, or those who would mock and murder Him. He must be able to stand before God Who sent Him and say, in essence, “I have used Your authority and power to fulfill all that You sent Me to do; I have loved to the bitter end.” When we see ourselves as empowered by God, sent by God, and one day standing before God, we will be much more inclined to love others and to esteem them more highly than ourselves.

How much of your everyday life is guided by this sense of mission and calling from God?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.