"Love" is the Greatest Commandment?

I had a conversation months ago about the "Greatest Commandment." Everyone thinks the greatest commandment is to "love another." I got into a conversation again last week with the same person about this exact topic and I told this person it is not the greatest commandment. I had to get Scripture out and show it to this person:

Mark 12:28-30:
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

Mark 12: 31-33:
The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

So many people think "love one another" is the Greatest Commandment. It isn't- it is to love God first and foremost. Second is love your neighbor as yourself, but realize this: your keeping the second commandment is useless if you don't keep the first one.

I remember the conversation we had months ago: I asked this person what she would say to me if I came up to her and told her I wanted to know how to gain eternal life. She told me that all I had to do was love my neighbor as myself, since this is the greatest commandment Jesus gave.

Even if that were true (which I have demonstrated it clearly isn't) the fact is, none of us has loved our neighbor as ourselves. We have all lied to one another, stolen from each other, lusted after others (which Jesus says is adultery in the heart), and hated others (which Jesus says is murder in the heart).

We will all stand guilty before God on Judgment Day and He should sentence us to Hell, and rightly so. God loved you so much, though, that He sent His One and only Son to die as a substitution for your sins. To accept His forgiveness and have it imputed to you, you must repent, ask for forgiveness, and place your trust in Jesus.

You must surrender your life to Him. Trust in Him like a parachute. If you were on a crashing plane, merely "believing" a parachute would save you isn't going to. You must strap on the parachute, trust the parachute, and jump from the plane. In the same sense, you must strap on the Lord Jesus, trust Him with all your life, and abandon your sinful lifestyle (repent).

Please do so today. You may not have tomorrow.