Love. Live. Lead. | Part 2
Loving Like Jesus
This week, we focused on the first element of our Mission, to Love like Jesus. In Mark 12:28-31, Jesus teaches us how we should love. One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” What stands out to you from these verses?
Jesus teaches us to love with all our heart. The Greek word
used for the heart is “Kardía”. In Jesus’ day, they understood the heart as the center of emotion. We similarly use the word “heart” today. So, Jesus says our love for God and others should be emotional; we should feel it. Do you struggle to feel love for God? Tell the story of a time you were overflowing with love for God. The hard truth here is that we are commanded to have an emotion. That may be hard to conceptualize. You might be thinking, I understand being commanded to do an action, but being commanded to feel something seems difficult. Do you find it difficult to control your emotions and have the right emotion at the right moment? What are some things you do to control your emotions?
Another way that Jesus teaches us to love God and others is
with all our mind. What is your first impression of what it means to love with your mind? One way we love with our mind is to choose what to think about and how we think about that thing. For example, I could, right now, choose to think about my wife and decide to think about all the things I love about her. I could list the top 10 things I love about her, and before I knew it, my heart would be full of love for her. In the same way, I could choose to set my mind on the things of God (Colossians 3:1). I could then think about all that God has done for me in Christ. In doing so, love for God would flow into my heart. So, one way to love with our minds is to set our minds intentionally on something or someone and practice gratitude for that person or that thing. Have you ever done this? What was the result? Another way to love with our mind is to study and learn more about God. Consider these words from George Muller: “The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray. The more we seek God, the more we desire to seek after Him. We must not surrender to weak desires but press on to desire God.” What do you think of this quote?
Finally, Jesus says we are to love God with all our strength. One of the most straightforward and obvious ways to love with our strength is by loving God through our actions. Especially actions that we intentionally choose to do. Jesus sees a powerful link between our actions and love. He says to His disciples John 14:23-24 … “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. …24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. Jesus says that if we love him, we will obey his teaching. Do you see a connection between love and obedience? Consider this verse: 1 John 3:18 - Dear children, let us not love with only words or speech but with actions and in truth. Tell the story of a time when you loved God with your actions and your heart was filled with love for Him.
