The Greatest Command

Jesus said: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:33-37) 

He also said: "This is my command, that you love one another as I have loved you." (John 15:12)

"He (Jesus) spoke as though there were no other command because, as a matter of fact, there really isn't any other command. Every other commandment  and every other message is contained in this one." 
Gregory Boyd

There's no getting around the fact that as followers of Christ we have been called to love others ~ to love others in the same manner God loves us ~ sacrificially, unconditionally. Boyd calls God's love for us "unsurpassable". This is the kind of love called "agape" love in the Bible. Agape love "is the act of unconditionally ascribing worth to another at a cost to oneself." ~Boyd

I can't wrap my mind around this great call on us, maybe because I can't wrap my mind around the fact that God loves me just like this. And He does. This is the place I must abide: secure in knowing experientially this unsurpassable love God has for me. I am incapable of loving others in this manner. My call is to abide in Christ and rely on Him to love others through me.

Some recent art journal pages:

I'm also reading "Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art" by Madeleine L'Engle for the Made Course FB discussion group. A quote from chapter one:

Gregory Boyd quotes are from his book "Repenting of Religion: Turning From Judgment to the Love of God"