The Greatest Love of All

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”  Matthew 22:37

Years ago, pop star Whitney Houston scored a hit record with her song, “The Greatest Love of All.” What was her idea of the greatest love? Listen to the lyrics and you’ll find that the songwriter said loving yourself was the greatest love of all. While I appreciate the sentiment, self-love can be a recipe for disaster.

Today, love of self has become paramount in the lives of a generation. Psychology Today published research in 2017 about the rise of narcissism. From overly doting parents to the culture’s celebration of appearance and adoration of celebrities, we’ve become all about ourselves. Being family-oriented has given way to individualism, where we align our lives around our own wishes, hopes, dreams, desires. Just one result is a culture that publishes 1,000 selfies to Instagram every 10 seconds—to the tune of 93 million photos of ourselves a day. I’m not sure that’s what Whitney had in mind…and it definitely isn’t what God has in mind.

Did God intend loving ourselves to be the greatest love of all? In Matthew 22, Jesus tells us that our love should, instead., be directed toward God. All of our heart, soul, and mind should be focused on loving Him. Jesus, Himself, gave us the greatest example of love when He gave His life for us on the cross. Great love is not self-love, but rather sacrificial love. And there is only One worthy of our very best love – His name is Jesus.

God, thank you for Your gift of love as demonstrated through Your Son, Jesus, Who sacrificed Himself for my sins. I prayer you will teach me how to focus less on myself and more on You, to love You more deeply as I know You through Your Word and obey your commandments. Help me to understand the greatest love of all is the love that I can express to You with my life, because of the love of Jesus. In His name, amen.