It really is simple; just love God and your neighbor. You can’t get any simpler than that, right? While that may seem impossible to us, Jesus explains that if we do these two things, we don’t have to worry about all the details of the law and the prophets because we will be living them withouteven thinking about it. When our hearts are full of the love of God and of neighbor, all our actions are loving, full of compassion and mercy.

When our only motivation is love, our lives will be fruitful. Now being fruitful in God’s economy is not the same as being successful in the eyes of the world. God sees us as fruitful when we spread the seeds of love wherever we go, much like our picture of Johnny Appleseed. Unfortunately, we may never see a mature tree, much less a whole orchard, as the result of our seed planting. In our culture, that would be considered failure. But God takes the long view. God sends others to water the plants that grow from our seed, some to fertilize, some to prune, some to prop up heavily laden branches, and finally some to harvest the fruit that would not be there had we not planted the seeds of God’s love in the first place.

Needless to say, we would not have had the seeds to plant had others not reached out to us and planted and nourished God’s love in our hearts. That’s the secret. All we have to do in order to keep God’s economy of love flowing in the world is pass on the bountiful love we receive. It really is just that simple.

“Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt.10:8 KJV)