Bible Reflections From Scripture Union Volume OneSample

Love is a Many Splendoured Thing Read Mark 12:28-44 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. Mark 12:30-31 Often we are surprised when the simplest concepts turn out to be the most profound. Yet, that is often the case. Take love for example. It is so simple, yet it defies a simple definition. If there ever was a topic, which could qualify as the most thought about, written about, talked about, sung about, it is certainly love. In His reply to the scribe, Jesus pulls together two well-known passages of the Old Testament. One concerns our love for God; the other our love for our neighbor. The key is found in verse 30: “And you shall 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 where we begin. Without a love for God, we will never go on to love our neighbor. The same can be said of the church. A church can be large and powerful, doctrinally pure and hard-working, but when a church loses its first love, all else counts for nothing. Without a love relationship with God, all that we do become meaningless. Without a love relationship with God, we lack the motivation and the passion to do His work. There is a desperate need today for a passionate, hot-hearted, intense, consuming love relationship with God. We must live it. We must commit our lives to it. We must surrender all that we are to all that He is, and dedicate ourselves to live for Him. Pray that the love for God will so permeate all that we do in and out of the church. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Analyze the things you are doing today. How many are motivated by your love for God and how many are motivated by self? Pray that God will change that. Let everything be motivated by your love for God.