Matt 5:43 "Love your God with all your heart, with all your mind, and all your soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. On this hang all the law [Spirituality & Religion]

God is love. As such, love is and always has been His standard. If we fail to show love, we fall short of His standard - we sin.

God wants us to love Him with every fiber of our being – mind, soul, and body - the same way He loves us. Because God loves each of us, He wants us to love each other. You might picture it as a triangle… /_\ God’s love flows down to us and our love flows up to God (/). Our love flows to others, and their love flows to us (--). And their love flows to God as well (\). Perfect harmony.

Jesus came to physically show us God. As such, everything Jesus said and did was love. His life was love. His teachings were love. Even His death was love. He met God’s standard perfectly.

We, on the other hand, kind of fall short of God’s standard. Sure, we try to love… well, most of the time. Maybe not that person who cut us off in traffic this morning; or that person who stole our car last week; or that rotten neighbor who has to do drum solos at one in the morning! Everyone else, though, we (try to) love them. When we fail to show love - even once - we’ve fallen short of God's standard. Unfortunately, the penalty for falling short of that standard is death; meaning permanent separation from God. No ifs. No ands. No buts.

Now the penalty for falling short of the standard is death, but the reward for not falling short is life. Jesus met God’s standard perfectly, and by so doing, He was able to claim that reward. Now, since Jesus loves, He offers to share that reward with all those who can’t obtain it (that’s everybody). All we have to do is trust Him (trust that He will do what He said) and obey Him. What does He ask us to do? Love. Love both God and other people… even our enemies. The words He spoke show us how to love. Sure, we’re [u]going[/u] to fail (future tense). But He [u]didn’t[/u] fail (past tense).