The Daily Fountain Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 20 September 2026 – Love Without Discrimination
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TOPIC – Love Without Discrimination
READ: Matthew 22:34-40
34 But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him,
and saying,
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”
37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
THE MESSAGE:
The Pharisees approached Jesus with the intention to test, trap and defeat Him (verses 34, 35; verse 15). Jesus’ response to the question: “Which is the great commandment in the law?” (verse 36), was an opportunity for Him to teach how someone can show his love for God and his fellow men – a love that involves the entire person, and from which comes the ability and desire to love God and those who are created in God’s image (Genesis 1:26-27). To love for fellow men is to love your neighbour as yourself, including a ‘fellow Israelite’ (Lev. 19:18), anyone in need (Luke 10:29-37) and even one’s enemies (Matthew 5:44).
We must learn from Jesus here. Note that the Pharisees came as enemies to test Jesus, to spite Him and to prove Him wrong. But Jesus loved them without discrimination. He practised what He had preached to His disciples: “Love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43). Do we practise what we preach? Have we love for ou enemies? Like the Pharisees, we can become so busy with every day concerns, perhaps chasing what we believe is the right thing, and miss out on the first and great thing that God demands from us.
PRAYER: Father, may the fruit of Your love flow into every life that I encounter.
