"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." Matthew 22:37-39

When Jesus was questioned about what was the greatest commandment of all He responded by saying "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." But Jesus didn't stop there; He went on to give the second, even though He was not asked for it. This is because the two are inseparable. Jesus said upon these two commandments lay all the Law and the Prophets. When we follow the first command it will lead us to follow the second, and everything else will fall in line. Without God being first in our life we can never love our neighbor as our self.

The Great Commandment will always lead us to the Great Commission. For when God is our first love, we will love and desire the same things He does. Loving our neighbor moves us to go to the lost of the world. For we learn from the parable of the "Good Samaritan" that our neighbor goes beyond the person living next store to us. The Great Commandment leads us to fulfilling the Great Commission. It is possible to give without loving, but it is not possible to love without giving. When we love God more than anything else we will give our life to the reconciliation of the lost, just as Jesus did.

"I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep."  

John 10:14-15