What one word would you use to sum up who Jesus was and is?  Would it be messiah or savior or healer or king?  True, He is all of these. For me, the word would be love.

What are the keys to our faith?  Is it worship, giving our tithe, serving on a committee, maybe helping with the Youth program?  Certainly all of these are means to growing in our faith, but according to Peter, the key is to love one another and to love God.

What if each day we evaluated our faith journey through the question: ‘Am I loving God and neighbor more deeply from the heart?’  Sometimes this is hard to evaluate on a daily basis, but I think if we spent some time thinking on this question, we will find the little ways in which we did love more deeply from the heart.

If we spend hours reading and studying our Bible, are faithful in attending worship and in our giving, and if we serve here or there – we can please God and we may grow in our faith.  But if we are doing these things out of duty or obligation but not out of love, we are lost.  We are lost because although we may grow in our faith, the love doesn’t spill out for God and into other people’s lives.  We must lovingly give ourselves away to truly grow deeper in our faith.