Now we come to something very important. We should want to produce “good fruit” and store up treasure in heaven, but just doing good things is not enough. Going through the motions to do good things because they seem right, or because someone told us to do them, or to impress someone, or for any reason other than what God explained really does no good at all. And what did God say? That is another question someone asked Yeshua. He answered it this way:
But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment, And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40 NKJV)
Love, then, should be our motivation – love of God, and love of other people. The Apostle Paul said as much when he wrote, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14 NKJV) But then we come to another question: What is love?
