This week, our scripture quote takes us back to basics. To the center. To the heart.

When all else falls away, one main thing remains about Christ’s message: love.

Not the fancy or feeling we get for our significant other. Not the way we feel about our family and friends. It is actually something much deeper than either of those.

The love of which Christ’s speaks is God’s love.

It is the kind that cares for the other before one’s own self. It is the kind that seeks to build up a broken world with God’s life, justice, and peace. It is the kind that opens eyes and ears and hearts to the sin, pain, and prejudice at work among us and within us. It is a love that excels beyond all others. It is the way that God loves us.

And here, Christ says that we are to give the same love to one another.

Not just those close to us. Not just those who look or think or live like us. But every single other human on the planet.

Everything else we do and think and say flows from this. It is our compass. It is our lens. It is how we are to be in this world.

That is Christ’s command. The question is – will we follow?