Love God and love your neighbor. Jesus calls us to both, because both are part of the same. To love God and neighbor is to enlarge the boundaries of the self so that agape love (Godly love) is possible. There is nothing wrong with loving self, but if we are truly seeking to find God's joy, then we have to move beyond self love. Then, this agape love is "road tested" and authenticated in relationships. It is one thing to love all humankind, but quite another to specifically love the person we work with, the disagreeable person at church, the person who doesn't see every point the way we do, the street person, the homosexual, the divorcee, the poor, the hateful, the atheist, the Muslim.

Love God (worship God, keep God's commandments) and love others. We are called to love. We are called to 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. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.

Maryanne Raphael in her book, Called to Love, shares the following story about Mother Teresa. One day when Mother Teresa came to visit Shanti Nagar, Sister Frances Xavier asked, "May I speak with you, Mother?" "Of course, Sister," answered Mother Teresa. "I have leprosy, Mother," Sister Francis said calmly, "There are several Sisters who have been diagnosed. I am sorry we did not follow the doctor's rules not to touch those with contagious wounds. But when you see Jesus in His distressing disguise and you know He gladly died for you, how can you put worries about your own health before caring for Him?" "I know, Sister," Mother Teresa said. "I never told any of you not to touch them. I told all of you to listen to the doctors very carefully so you will understand the situation."

I believe this is the mindset of many of our missionaries today. They get it! They get what Jesus is calling us to do. Love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Even if it means putting our own lives in danger.

Love God—Worship and honor God. Listen to and learn his commands. Love others—Live out our love for God in our relationships with others by "seeing Jesus in disguise" in others and loving them just as Christ has loved us.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35 (NIV)

"If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body [to hardship] that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." Corinthians 13 (TNIV)

Thanks to David Henderson for his willingness to share with our "Spirit" readers the devotional he used for the 120th Annual Meeting of SBA's Woman's Missionary Union held in March 2009.