You can find the video here: https://www.facebook.com/1415702701879327/videos/353666219161575
Mark 12:30-31
So yesterday we came to a new understanding that the strength the Bible talks about in Deuteronomy and that Jesus quoted in the book of Mark 12:31-31 was truly about loving God with all of our muchness. Using our strength is devoting every opportunity, possibility and capacity you have to honoring God.
And The Bible Project quote I used I want you to hear again, “loving God with your me’od means devoting every possibility, opportunity, and capacity that you have to honoring God and loving your neighbor as yourself.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aaVy1AmFX4)
Today we are going to talk about the last part of the commandment, which is to love my neighbor as I love myself.
What does it mean to love someone? Is love just a feeling? Do you only love your spouse or relatives? Can you love strangers?
Of all the virtues for a Christian life, love is considered the most important, Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 13:13.
So let’s listen once again to the words of Christ Jesus.
Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Jesus declares that the greatest commandment is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. But he doesn’t conclude there. Jesus then says, “The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
It isn’t just enough to love God. You must also direct that love outward toward others. One could say that it is impossible to fully love God with your muchness – your heart, soul, mind, strength – and not show that same holistic love to other people.
“Both the Greek and the Hebrew words for love show a meaning beyond just emotion. One of the most common Greek words we translate into love is agape, meaning love, affection, goodwill benevolence.” (Joseph H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 9th ed. [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2009], 4).
The Hebrew word referenced is ahavah. A broad word that means love affection or friendship.
The Bible Project tells us that ahavah is mostly used to show care towards another human beings. It can be used as physical love, like the King of Persia’s love for Queen Esther – but this is the exception.
However, it’s mostly used like Abraham’s love for his son Isaac, or Jonathan’s love for King David, or even Israel’s love for King David.
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (NIV) The Lord did not set his affection (ahavah) on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved (ahavah) you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
This ahavah originates for Israel from God’s own character. Ahavah begins and ends with God and because He has no beginning nor does He have an ending, His ahavah has always been and will be.
God’s love is not just a feeling, it’s also an action.
Deuteronomy 4:37 (NIV) Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,
The Bible Project tells us this, “God’s love isn’t just a sentiment; it is something God does” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV_LUs2lnIQ, direct quotation is at 2:28).
1 John 4:9 (NIV) This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
Love goes beyond feeling, and involves action. How do we show God our love and how do we show our neighbor God’s love through us to them?
Deuteronomy 10:12-22 (NIV) And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.