What Does It Take to Love? – Part 1
David W Palmer
We all know that love is an amazing feeling—a very powerful emotion. The Song of Solomon goes as far as to make the following statement about love:
(Song of Songs 8:6 NKJV) “… love is as strong as death ...”
Love is indeed a forceful feeling; it is a dynamic motivation that can be as strong as death in many ways. On one hand, it can displace the fear of death for a mother desperate to rescue a child in peril, or empower the readiness of a soldier willing to lay his life down for “king and country.” On the other hand, the jealousy stirred up by love denied through—say, adultery—is as strong as death in that it can be willing to kill (See: Prov. 6:32–35).
However in the following passage, we see that the choices involved in love are also related to “life”—eternal life:
(Luke 10:25 NKJV) And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
We see that the lawyer inquired of Jesus—the only true expert in such matters—about eternal life.
Despite the questionable motivation behind the lawyer’s question, some very interesting and convicting truths come out of this conversation. The inquisitor began with a “do” question: “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So in his mind, his own choices played a part in whether or not he received eternal life; he believed, in part, that what he did or did not do would contribute to determining his ultimate outcome.
This was obviously a very important issue for this self-justifying student of God’s word. Would Jesus vindicate the way he was already living, and no doubt, enjoying his life; or would Jesus imply that he had to undergo radical change in the here and now to enjoy abundant life with God in his eternal kingdom? This is an extremely important question—one relevant to us all. As Jesus is God’s Son—his faithful and true witness sent to bring us perfect clarity on divine, spiritual, and eternal matters—we would be wise to listen very closely to how Jesus responded:
(Luke 10:26–28 NKJV) He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” {27} So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” {28} And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”
In answer to the man’s question about inheriting eternal life, Jesus called for the man’s own inner conviction about: what is the crux of what God wants? The lawyer’s answer overflowed immediately from the treasure of his heart: “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” His intellectual ability to rightly summarize the Bible’s intent was accurate; Jesus agreed with this lawyer’s response. But then Jesus simply said that he would have to implement this to receive eternal life: “Do this and you will live (have life).” Ultimately, Jesus agreed that eternal life would be predicated on the man’s chosen actions.
The lawyer in this story was an expert in Old Testament law. As we have seen, he understood that love was the whole objective of the “law and prophets.” However, Jesus had to ensure that this man couldn’t misuse his strong intellectual gift to dodge his personal responsibility—that of living in obedience to his own conclusion. So the Master had to lock down the application of it in a very airtight way. We next watch our Lord take this from an abstract, academic, intellectual exercise, into a very practical application. (More on this in the next parts of this series.)
We conclude today by facing the question about whether this all applies to us in the New Testament; do we have to love our neighbours to partake in eternal life? Certainly, the converse is true: if we truly have [eternal] life, we will love one another as Jesus command
