Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." Mark 12:29-31 NLT.

     A lot of focus, in the month of February, is on the concept of love. Romantic love is very important but it is not the only love that we should be concerned about. Jesus said that we are to be primarily concerned with loving God. Of equal importance is the command to love each other. No other commandment of God is any more important than the two of those. Those commandments were more important than all of the sacrifices and burnt offerings (12:33-34). God commanded us to love. It may have been easier for some if He had just said, "Run a mile a day," or given us some other physical task. Then we wouldn't have to think about it. We would create a routine of basic action. In this text Jesus speaks of love as an action that requires our whole selves (heart, soul, mind, and strength).

     Jesus went to great lengths to show how complete our love for God must be by highlighting the various terms relating to the human personality - heart (control center; cf. Mark 7:19), soul (self-conscious life), mind (thought capacity), and strength (bodily powers). We are to love God with our entire control center, all of our self-conscious life, with all of our thought capacity, and with all of our bodily powers. He then said that we are to show love to our neighbors (lit-those who are nearby or thy fellow man) at the same level that we love ourselves. We cannot justify (by the scriptures) loving our neighbors at a level under the level that we love ourselves. We cannot justify (by the scriptures) loving our neighbors at a level under the level of love that we have for ourselves. Why must we love God? In the divine plan for those creatures called human, loving God is as essential as breathing is to our physical life. We must breathe. We can make ourselves unable to breathe, or we can refuse to breathe-but now without consequences. We must love God because the alternative, though possible, is unthinkable and unbearable.

     Take a deep breath and ask yourself what specific opportunities you will have today to demonstrate your love for God. Now think of ways that you can show love to those around you today as God commanded. Those two ideas are linked since Jesus said that we should keep His commandments if we love Him (John 14:15). As you think on these things please remember that the level that God has set is that we love Him with our whole selves. We are to love God with everything that we are which is greater than everything that we have. We are to show our neighbors the same love that we show ourselves.

Bro Eli