"You are not far from the kingdom of God." (vs.34)

Bear with me for just another moment as I linger with this theme of marriage. When my wife and I began our courtship I lived with the agonizing frustration of her refusing to pledge her love to me until she was ready to mean it. Now keep in mind that I was a young man determined to gain her love by all means possible. So with chivalry and romantic determination I sought every possible way to win her love. It did not matter how creative I was, she stood her ground, and would not say those three simple words, "I love you."

You see, my wife had made a pledge to God that she would never tell a man she loved him until she meant it and knew she could continue to say it for life. You can only imagine how frustrating this was for me in those first months. The scenario would be something like this. We would be walking together, I would clear my throat, place my arms around her and say something like "You know Elaine, I really love you!" Each time I would be deflated by her simple but determined response, "Yes, Mitch and I like you too." The day she finally broke down settled our relationship. In fact at that very moment I knew and she knew that God brought us together. When she finally uttered those words I stood up where I was (we were camping with her family at the time) and screamed for everyone to hear, SHE LOVES ME!

This particular experience with love has helped me to better appreciate the depth and value of the love of God. The word love is so easily spoken nowadays that little consequence is attached to it. The point of the story before us in Mark's gospel, is that love far surpasses all other commands because once it is pledged nothing more is needed to define the relationship. Loving God is the greatest command because it is a response to God's acceptance of us. I love God with all my being (heart, soul, mind and strength) because there is nothing I need to do to earn God's favor. The only thing I am asked to do in response is to pledge my love to him. There is only one command God asks me to keep and it is that I love him in response to his love for me.

This puts a high value on love. We are not to express our love for God until we are really prepared to mean it. It is the highest expression. The scribe who comes to Jesus has studied the law with intense detail. He is the one who has spent hours translating the scriptures and preserving them on new parchments. Because he, and his colleagues, knew the scriptures well they also served as lawyers in Israel, applying the law to the various situations that would arise. Armed with this great knowledge of the scriptures this man came to Christ to see which of all the commands Jesus believed to be the most important. Christ's response touches the man deeply. "Hear O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (vs.29,30)

All other commands seek God's favor but fail to satisfy God. Love meets God because it is a response to his mercy and redemption. Love is often a word hard to define but here Jesus gives it a shape that helps us to visualize it clearly. Consider the components that make up this word before you ever express your love to God again. Consider the following in your pledge to God.

1. The object of love must be God and him only. "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord, is one." This is a call to make God the sole object of our love, the one toward whom we pour our praise and adoration. In modern terms we need to say about God, he is it! My wife would not pledge her love to me until she could be satisfied that she would never want anyone else. Similarly my pledge for God will only mean something to him when that love is uncontested. He has to become the sole object of my love. Psalm 23 begins with a similar expression of solitary love for God. "The LORD is my Shepherd I shall not be in want." Since he is my shepherd and I have pledged my love to him, there is nothing else I need, or want. He is it!

2. This love must begin in the seat of my emotions, the center of my being. Further, nothing and no one else must occupy this place, the heart. We are to "Love the Lord, your God, with all our heart." (vs.30) Look at that place for just a moment. You will need to reflect deeply and prayerfully. Does a love for God, a passion for him sit alone on that throne of your being? You can only love God with passion if he is the only one you truly love. Your love for others can only be real when it flows from this love. Is your deepest desire and emotion for God? Is there a "reserved for God" sign at that place declaring that your greatest love is for him?

3. This love deepens only through a growing knowledge of him. We are to increase that love when our understanding is engaged. (With all your mind.) Knowing God is the impetus of love. It is that which gives love it's nourishment. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, in their classic commentary on the Bible, make this comment; "God made us with minds so that we could put all our intellectual capacities to work in loving him." The more we understand God, the more we learn about his character, attributes and nature, and the more we will love him. I cannot but love him more when I increase my understanding of him. Sadly, many attempts at loving God depend more on the emotion than the intellect. Love however, is not a show. Love is a rational response to what we have learned about God. It can be carried by the emotion but not determined by it. This is why solid teaching will draw us to God quicker than a worship experience. It is a lesson the Church had better learn. What is it about God that will inspire such love? Consider Paul's words from Ephesians 1:7; "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and (are you ready for this?) understanding."

4. Finally, we are urged to allow that love to consume all our energy. The greatest command calls us to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind, and now with all our strength. T his does not mean I work hard for his love but rather I work from his love,or, because of his love. What I do I do because I love him, not in order to be loved by him. This consuming response to God is what shapes servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. My love for God, and his pledge to love me shapes all that I do, say and am! Such love also defines my love for my neighbor, the second command given by our Lord. Consider these words from Ephesians 3:16-19 "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

I trust I have helped you to understand something valuable about love. Love, like a diamond, is something so precious, we only give it to the one we are willing to give our life to. Are you ready for such love?

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep burning and unquenchable.

Bruce Lee

There is nothing so loyal as love.

Alice Cary (1820–1871)

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