I sometimes think I am the only person who sees the commands of Christ as Three. 

1) We are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. It means nothing comes before God. Hardest lesson I had to learn was to place my kids on the altar before God. He loves them more then I love them which seems impossible. When I fear things, it is me demonstrating that I love something more than I love God or that I don’t trust him. 

The rich man loved money more then God. I have to ask myself if I placed specific people and things into this biblical question how would I react?  Would I be willing to give up what I love most to follow God?

2) We are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Which means, we think about everyone and ask how would I want to be treated. Or we think how would I want someone to show love to me in this instance. A perfect example was given to me by a friend this morning.  The before Church crowd is in a McDs and the young clerk is clueless.  The church crowd became frustrated with the kid.  But if we are loving our neighbor as we would want to be loved,  we would show patience and stop worrying if we have to wait.  We love by calming the person and letting them know all will be well.  Maybe cracking a joke or two.  

Most of the time we fail on this one even with our brother and sisters in Christ.  And yet it is the lesser of the two commands to love others.

3) I believe we are called to a higher love for our fellow Christians. The church should love one another like Christ loved us. We are to live out the Acts 2 community. People would want to know our Lord because they see what we have.  Who would need to evangelize? People would clamor for what we have.

The only way to get this type of love is for Christ to love through us. (John 14-15) The only way to love like this is for us to be a branch on the vine and to be willing to be pruned so we bear fruit. Most of us scream bloody murder when God prunes. 

Have you ever seen an example of the third type of love? What did it look like? Inside the church, people loving one another like Christ loved us — willing to sacrifice their desires, wants, power, popularity, feelings for the sake of a brother or sister in Christ.

Please share.