Love God and each other
You must follow the Lord your God alone! Revere him! Follow his commandments! Obey his voice! Worship him! Cling to him—no other! ~ Deuteronomy 13:4 (CEB)
Jesus says this is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. ~ John 15:12 (NLT)
KEY IDEA:
The basic commandment is to love God and, following Jesus' example, love each other.
PRAYER:
Lord God, you have instructed us to love like Jesus. What a joy it is to experience his love. But what a disappointment it is to fail at loving like he loves. I want to be more like him so please strengthen my connection to him and help me to severe connections to people, things, and habits which are contrary to Christ and his ways. I pray this in his name. Amen.
TRANSLATIONS
ABP = Authorized Boydston Paraphrase — my own freestyle biblical adaptation — somewhere between paraphrase, commentary, and sermon
CEB = Common English Bible (©2011, the Common English Bible)
CEV = Contemporary English Version (©1995, American Bible Society)
MSG = The Message (©1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson)
NIRV = New International Reader's Version (©1996, 1998, Biblica)
NIV = New International Version (©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011, Biblica)
NLT = New Living Translation (©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, Tyndale House Foundation)
