Love is not easy to define! It may be the topic that is the most thought about, written about, talked about, dreamt about and sung about. It has been called the “thing that makes the world go round” and "a many splendored thing," and many other things. The love story has been written about in poetry, in songs, in literature, in novels and for movies.
Yet it is most of the time not defined clearly, simply and often not even practically. Love has been confused with passion, sexual attraction, the need for mystical experiences, the answer to loneliness, and many other needs of men and women. These may be needs closely related to love, but not one of them is quite love itself.
But one thing is clear - everyone knows they need love in their lives. Everyone wants to be loved and wants to love. And many look for love in the wrong place and has been hurt, devastated and ruined by an unfulfilled need for love.
Most people would try everything to find real love. Many tried "free love," simply to find that it was not free at all and cost them their education, their youth, their purity and their self respect. “Free love” is expensive! It can cost you your marriage and the privilege to see your children grow up. You may find that extra-marital "love" affairs are dead-end streets and that at its best leads to nothing and at its worst leads to death itself.
But there is one love affair which is good for us, that we need to survive in life and that can teach us the true meaning of what love really is! There is one love affair that is worth dying for and that makes life worth living. The One who prescribed, even commanded, this love affair was Jesus. It is a love affair with God.
A scribe asked Jesus to explain, in a nutshell, the bottom line of what it meant to follow God.
In his reply to the Scribe, Jesus pulls together two well-known passages of Old Testament Scripture:
One of the teachers of the law came and asked Jesus, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "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 neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:28-34)
The first commandment concerns itself with love for God; the other with love for your neighbour. We have nicknamed them the Great Commandments. Everything written in the Bible boils down to these two great commandments, and the key is found in these words: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the top priority. This is where it all begins. This is where true living begins. This is where understanding love that is real, begins! This is where spirituality, union with God, positive thinking, great personal relations, exciting church membership, successful parenting and a glorious marriage begins. Loving God is the source of a dynamic, caring, meaningful life!
As we consider the meaning and impact of the Great Commandments over the next couple of blogs - please listen carefully. Because without a love affair with God, all that we do becomes meaningless. Without a love affair with God, we lack the motivation and the passion to do his work, and any other meaningful work as well.
Of one thing I am certain - there is today a frantic need for a passionate, hot-hearted, intense, consuming love affair with God.
This is the one and only love affair that will take you to heaven, even before you die!
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