The Second Commandment

In an increasingly broken world filled with hate and violence, God’s plan from the beginning was to save and restore the world to the glory for which he had created it. This simple plan has not changed with the evolution of sin, time, or man’s rejection of his creator. Rather, God’s simple twofold plan of redemption included both a commandment to love the creator with all one’s heart, mind, soul, and strength, and a commandment to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. Neither commandment stands in isolation, for one cannot fully love others without a consuming love for God, and neither can one completely love God without a love for the neighbor created by God. The answer to hate is love; the answer to war is love; the answer to violence is love; and the answer to all of societal disfunction is love. The answer is not a commandment to like God and others, because one only likes others because of likeness. Rather, love is a choice. A choice to love what you don’t like. A choice to love what you don’t understand. A choice to love until the God you love sets everything right in eternity.