Loving God and Others

Luke 10 begins with " After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. ² He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. ³ Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves."

Further instructions were given to them as they set out on their journey preparing the way for Jesus. No doubt, they encountered some who were eager to hear the teachings of Jesus, and others who could care less. One of the things Jesus told them is in verse 16,  “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The Bible then tells us the seventy-two, after returning from their journey were filled with joy. A few verses later we are told Jesus was also filled with joy and praised God for the success of these who had gone on what we would call a mission trip. 

Following this, an expert in the law questioned Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus answered him like this. “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” This unnamed expert in the law spoke, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." The man was told by Jesus that he had answered correctly and in doing those things, he would live. 

We've heard the words numerous times, read them ourselves from the pages of our Bibles, but have we really considered each part of that answer and what they mean. We easily detect the basis for our eternal life is our love toward God and our love toward others. But in our age when the word love has been so easily spoken and so seldom understood, do we really know about the love for God and others and practice that kind of love in our lives?

Look at it closely.  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart."  When the word of God uses the word "all," it doesn't mean "part."  A quick inward look will tell you if you are loving God with all your heart. Then you are to love God "with all your soul." It's your soul that's on the inside. It's the part of you that relates to everyone in one way or another. Again, an inward look will reveal to us if we really love God with all our soul. The verse continues, "with all your strength." We associate strength with power, and that's just the way our love toward God should be evident, with all the power that is within us. And finally, we are to love God "with all our minds." This one is a little tricky, since our minds are rather personal and can be filled with any number of things. The person whose love for God controls the mind is the person who loves God the way he likes to be loved. 

Then, perhaps the most difficult of all, we are to "love our neighbor as we love ourselves." Some people may hurt us but God says we should love them. Some may try to damage our character but God says to love them. Loving them as ourselves means we treat people the way we would like to be treated. 

Love like the Bible describes causes us to place God and others above ourselves; loving like we have never loved before. It calls for complete dedication to live and love as God has directed.

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