Loving Those Who Love You – The Second Great Commandment

Loving Those Who Love You

Matthew 22:37-39

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.”

Ephesians 5:21, 22, 25

…submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord…Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church…

To love another is to submit to him.

The first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, the greatest of all Christian virtues. Love, John tells us, is the principle expression which obedience to the Law engenders (1 Jn. 5.1-3). Filled with the Spirit and, as a result (Ezek. 36.26, 27), resolved on a course of loving our neighbors, we may expect that love to begin with those closest to us, who love us in return. The manner in which we are to love them is summed up in the word, “submit.” As Christ submitted to the Father out of love for Him, and thus became obedient unto death for our salvation (Phil. 2.5-11), so also we, if we would love our neighbors according to the teaching of God’s Law, must submit to those we love, even as they submit to us. What does this entail? It means considering the needs, interests, and concerns of others as of more importance than even our own (Phil. 2.1-5). It means making our strength and resources available to those who love us at the point of their need, to meet, if it were possible, even the most basic of their life needs (Jn. 13.1-15). If we love those who love us by submitting ourselves to them, we do well, and we imitate the love that Jesus had for His Father and His disciples. Loving those closest to us is the place to begin in working out love for our neighbors according to the requirements of God’s Law.

What does it mean for you to submit to those who love you? What are some ways you might begin to practice that submission more consistently?

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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.