Pastor Tom Grieb concludes our series “Making a Difference.”

In our church’s Vision Statement, we sayabout ourselves that we will be a people who will “make a difference by following Christ, offering hope, serving others, and loving everyone.”  This week we concern ourselves with what it means to “love everyone,”  taking a close look at the Great Commandment from Matthew 22:34-40, which calls on us to “love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength” and “to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.”

For Christ, love for God leads to love for neighbor.  One follows the other.  In Christ’s mind, the proving ground of our love for God is meted out as we offer love to other people.  In an often mean-spirited and divisive world so in need of love, it comes to us, with Christ’s help, to love those around us.  It comes to us to receive God’s love and then share the same with others.  I John 4:19 puts it well, “We love because God first loved us.”  As we allow God’s love to become more a part of our lives we are empowered, if not enabled, to love as he wants us to, thereby making the Great Commandment possible in our lives.