We’re into the second week of Advent: Love. Monday we observed Jesus’ example of washing the disciples’ feet and Tuesday we noticed Jesus’ explicit command that we go and do likewise. Today we see where the power to do that comes from. You guessed it: right back to love.

Loving me empowers you to obey my commands. (John 14.15, TPT)

Love God, love people, and obeying the “first and greatest” commandment empowers the second.

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12.28 – 31, ESV)