The spine of love, embodying the posture of all that is the entirety and completeness of love, is Matthew22:37-39. So when love asks, as love must, since love is not one that can ever sit idle, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?", it is the body that hangs on the spine of Matthew 22:37-39 that then answers and says, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). For on the two commandments of Matthew 22:37-39 hang ALL the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40), which are all the ways in which the love of God can be tasted, smelled, felt, seen and heard. For love needs to be tasted, and smelled, and felt, and seen and heard, in order to be real.

Which is why God gave us all a body and 5 senses. So that we can not only live in the ways of God, which is the ways of love, but we can walk in the ways of love. Which is why the church is referred to as the body of Christ, so that the love of Christ can be tasted, smelled, felt, seen and heard. Which is why all the law and the prophets are the entire body of the Word that hangs onto the spine of Matthew 22:37-39, so that through the body of the church, just like through Christ the living Word, the Word can become flesh, and be a living experience that can be tasted, smelled, felt, seen and heard. 

As such, Matthew 22:37-39 is the very spine of the entire Bible. And the answer to the call of love is Isaiah 6:8. The rest of the body of the Word is all the working parts and limbs that adjoin to that spine to make love real, both in terms of loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and in loving our neighbour as ourselves. For Matthew 6:33 tells us to seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and then all these things shall be added unto thee. It's when we seek first the kingdom of God, which is to seek first to love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength, and His righteousness, that we will be able to then love our neighbour ourselves, in all the various ways of God, which is when "all these things shall then be added unto us".

That being said, Matthew 22:37-39 thus forms the very cornerstone and the structural scaffolding of the entire Bible. For together, they express in all their ways, and in every way, the fullness and the essence of I AM. In the same way that the human spine supports and anchors the accomplishment of all that is possible with the human body, everything that makes up the entire length and breadth of the complete substance that is the body of the written Word is first FRAMED, and then ANCHORED, and then ACCOMPLISHED by these two greatest of all commandments becoming as one, like the marriage of the groom and the bride. And out of that wedlock, that which is framed is the entire fullness of "the way, and the truth, and the life" that is TRUE LOVE.

Matthew 22:37 and 39 are the starting points, the compass coordinates, ground zero from whence the new creation of man "made in the image and likeness of God" sets his aim and bearings. In setting his course, the "lines of longitude" for all his thoughts and ways are every scripture that proves, bears out, affirms and demonstrates Matthew 22:37. Which is every scripture that leans man's heart and soul and mind FOREVER UPWARDStowards loving God the Father with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength. And the "lines of latitude" for all his thoughts and ways are every scripture that proves, bears out, affirms and demonstrates Matthew 22:39. Which is every scripture that inclines the hands of man FOREVER OUTWARDS to love his neighbour as himself.

When explained mathematically, being "the study of relationships", which is precisely what the Bible is really all about, Matthew 22:37-29 outlines a perfect blueprint for relationship with the Father and with man. If we were to now plot these relationship trajectories visually, the vertical axis (or y-axis) would be Matthew 22:37, and the horizontal axis (or x-axis) would be Matthew 22:39. And in portraying the purview that "the blueprint of relationship" encompasses, this would be illustrated by "the size of the area" plotted by the x and y axis, being together the entire "surface area of love". Which is the amplitude and the circumference of the immeasurable fullness that is "the way, and the truth, and the life".

In fact, Matthew 22:37 is factually and visually illustrative of the HEIGHTS to which the bounds of love can go. In the same sense, Matthew 22:39 is factually and visually illustrative of the LENGTHS to which the extent of love can go. And when this love is expressed in the three dimensional language of "the way, and the truth, and the life", it is the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three that best expresses this three dimensional view of love. Which is a love that not only shows the heart of man "the way", but it also a love that shows the heart of man "the truth" and "the life" as well too. In doing so, it demonstrates "how wide, how long, how high and how deep" love is , being a love that hangs perfectly on all the law and the prophets. And furthermore, being a love that came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, in fulfilling all the law, it is clearly a love WITHOUT LIMIT . For just like I AM is completely without end, His love has absolutely NO LIMIT and NO END.

"And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is." Ephesians 3:18.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17).

#LovingAuthentically