January 20, 2026
Mark 12:30 - 31
30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”Yesterday we examined Mark 12:30 and Jesus’ call to love God wholeheartedly. Today we turn to Mark 12:31, where “Love your neighbor as yourself” is a call to make compassion tangible by treating others with the same care you give yourself, even when it requires sacrifice. This command summarizes faithful living, that is grounded in God’s love and demonstrated through daily acts of mercy and justice.
When Jesus calls the second greatest commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself,” He puts love for others right alongside love for God, showing they’re inseparable in a life of faith. Loving others is the visible proof of loving God. So, our devotion to God and God's ways, is seen not just in prayer and worship, but in how we treat those around us, especially the vulnerable, the stranger, and yes, even those we find hard to understand and therefore love.
In the Old Testament, the law Jesus quotes in Mark 12 helped shape how Israel lived together, expanding the idea of “neighbor” beyond close family to include foreigners and outsiders. A neighbor is the other person, the one we might rather overlook, because the Bible tells us that God’s covenant love crosses every boundary. Remembering God’s command to care for the alien and the poor turns our acts of kindness into reflections of God's own heart for those that we often refer to as "on the margins." Perhaps what might be helpful is for us to ask the question "What would I want if I were in their shoes?" and then act on that answer.
In everyday life, loving your neighbor often comes down to simple, repeated choices, listening without cutting in, giving time instead of rushing to fix things, sharing what you have, and standing alongside those who are oppressed. So, to live this out, we are encouraged and called to such things as offering hospitality, being fully present, speaking up for others, and giving sacrificially. Gradually over time, these small, steady acts create a life that reflects Christ’s love.
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