THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

 

LOVE

Pastoral Messages by Matriarch Elnette Edwards

Beloved children,

If I could leave you with one message, one truth that matters above all else, it would be this: love is everything. Not the romantic, feelings-based love that the world peddles, but the deep, sacrificial, unconditional love that flows from the heart of God and transforms everything it touches.

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Everything else—all the rules, all the theology, all the religious practices—hangs on these two commands. Love is the foundation, the framework, and the fruit of authentic faith.

But let's be honest—real love is hard. It's easy to love people who love you back, who treat you well, who think like you and look like you. The challenge comes when God calls us to love the difficult people, the ones who hurt us, the ones we disagree with, the ones who don't deserve it.

I learned about this kind of love from watching my mother care for my father during his final years. He had dementia and didn't even recognize her most days. He was often combative, confused, and difficult. But every single day, she bathed him, fed him, spoke gently to him, and kissed his forehead. When I asked her how she did it, she said simply, "Love isn't a feeling, baby. It's a choice I make every morning when my feet hit the floor."

That's the love God calls us to—the kind that chooses to show up even when it's not convenient, even when it's not reciprocated, even when it costs us something. This love doesn't enable dysfunction or tolerate abuse—it has boundaries. But within those healthy boundaries, it extends grace, offers forgiveness, and believes the best.

Love also means speaking truth. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is tell someone a hard truth they need to hear. But we speak that truth wrapped in compassion, with the goal of restoration, not destruction. We don't use truth as a weapon; we use it as medicine.

And here's what I've discovered: the more we love, the more we become like God, because God is love. When we love generously, forgive freely, serve sacrificially, and give extravagantly, we're reflecting His character to a world desperate to see it.

So I challenge you today: Who do you need to love better? Maybe it's your spouse, your children, your parents. Maybe it's a difficult co-worker or neighbor. Maybe it's someone who hurt you deeply. Maybe it's yourself—because you can't truly love others if you haven't received God's love for yourself.

Love is the greatest commandment and the greatest gift. Don't waste another day withholding it.

Lavishly loved and loving, 

Matriarch Elnette Edwards