Speaking God's Love Language

Luke 10:25-29

            What does God want from me? That is a question that each of us has probably asked at some point in our lives. How can I make sure that I am on God’s good side. After all, who wants to be on God’s bad side. That is the gist of the question in our passage today.

            Our passage begins with Jesus teaching a group of people, as he often did and a lawyer stands to ask a question. This was not a lawyer as we think of lawyers. This lawyer was an expert in the Mosaic Law. This was the law that governed how they were to live their daily lives and do it in a way that got them in good with God. This person was more like John Bracke or Deborah Krause. What he probably was doing was checking to see if Jesus was orthodox in His understanding of the Law. He cuts right to the chase, “What must I do to gain eternal life?”

            This questions tells us something about the man. First it tells us that he was a Pharisee, or at least leaned that way. Of the two major schools in Judaism at that time, the Pharisees believed in life after death, and the Saducees did not. Since he was a Pharisee, then, he was looking for a list of rules. They wanted to know exactly what was expected of them. I think they would have been happy if they were given a list at the beginning of their lives that they could check off as they went. Let see, I gave alms to the poor 499 time in my life, one more and I am done with that category. I paid my tithe this year, that is done until next year. I have forgiven that neighbor of mine twice, one more and I can start holding a grudge. You get the picture.

            Jesus, realizing what he was dealing with, turns the question back on him. You are an expert, what does the law say? Here the man rattles off a formula that he had learned, kind of like the catechism that many of you learned in confirmation (he is actually loosely quoting from Duet. 6:5 and Leviticus). Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. I imagine that he did not think about it much, it just rolled off of his tongue. To his surprise, Jesus says That’s it. Do that.

            This seemed to come as a shock to the expert. Where was the list? How could he tell if he was earning enough points toward Heaven? So he goes after the one piece of the formula that he could quantify, by asking who is my neighbor? In this follow up question, he proves to us that he has learned the words and missed the point.

            By agreeing with his answer, Jesus was telling the man that what God wants is for him to love God back. You can not do this by following a list. So how do you love God as God loves you.  The word for love is that great word  that many of you have heard of, Agape.  It means unconditional love.  It is the same kind of love that God has for us.  The use of this word lets us know that the love that we are to have for God must be the kind that lasts forever.  That means that no matter what happens we love God.  When times are good, we love God.  When times go bad, we love God.  When God doesn't do what we want, we don't run away, no, we love God.  Our love for God, if it is Agape love will remain constant.  Just as God has done for us when we turned our backs on Him and rejected Him and even when we ran away ourselves, if our love is Agape, we will hang in there and love Him no matter what we see happening around us.  When we love someone like that we will make them our top priority in life.  God made us the top priority in all of creation.

            But how are we to love God.  Well there are four things listed here that cover all of the human personality.  The word for heart represents the seat of the emotions.  So, our love for God is to be emotional.  Now, I'm not saying that we have to get up and dance around and wave our hands in the air to love God, although some of you express your love for the Cardinals that way.  But to love God with all of our heart means that we stop looking at God as distant, some one way up in heaven, and acknowledging that God is with us as we live our lives.  Then, just as making the ones we love happy and pleasing them brings joy to us, then pleasing God will bring joy in our lives.  That same passion that we have for being with the ones we love and seeing them happy, we will have for God.  Why do you think that a man buys his fiancé an engagement ring.  It is not to buy her love, if that were the case, that would be a truly dysfunctional relationship.  The reason that he buys the ring is to see the joy on her face when he gives it to her as an expression of his love.  Those expressions do not stop there.  There are the little things that are done to express that love, mowing the yard, going to work, making dreams even small one come true. 

            We are to love God with our soul.  That was in Jewish thought the part of the human that connected with the supernatural.  It made us differentiated us from the animals.  It allows us to transcend ourselves and know that we are more than just a sack of flesh and blood.  It allows us to understand love and beauty and even eternity.  It makes the connection with God possible.  We can connect with all kinds of gods through our soul, Career, money, another person, our families.  To truly love God with all of our soul means to give that part completely to the one whom it was made to connect with, God.  Since it is the essence of who we are, it means that we will allow God to be the Lord of who we are.  It is to God that we will turn to find ourselves.  We will allow God to give us value in life.  Instead of selling our souls for some thing or one else, we will give our soul to God.

            We are to love God with our strength.  This referred to physical strength, but it also referred to the seat of the will.  This is here that strength of character resides.  It is here that we make our choices.  Will we chose to honor God in what we do, or will we do what is easy.  Will we do the right thing, the thing that we know God wants us to do, or will we do the thing that is expedient.  We will hold our relationship with Jesus above all else.  We will honor God with our skills and how we serve God with them. We will honor God with our wealth and how we chose to use it.  We will resolve to love God with our choices.

            We are to love God with all of our mind.  This is the seat of our reasoning ability, and it is also where wisdom resides.  Will we chose God's wisdom or our own.  Will we make our choices based on human understanding of what is right and wrong, or will we seek out God's wisdom through Scripture and prayer and act on that.  God's wisdom says to love your enemies, human reason says to get revenge.  When we chose to love God with our minds, we will find that seeking revenge will destroy us.  Forgiveness instead frees us. 

            Jesus told the lawyer, a relationship with God is not about rules and lists, it is about love. That is the question for each of us. Do we love God with all of who we are? What kind of passion do you have for God, or is God just one of those extra’s in your life? Do you have other God’s that you worship more than God, like yourself, a loved one, a political party, or your money? When you make your choices in life, is it evident that you love God by the choices you make with your skills, your wealth, your daily life? When you engage your mind, do you invite God into the conversation, attempting to see things from God’s perspective, our is it all about you?

            The question before us is have we chosen to love God? Because if we chose to love God, then the lawyer’s question becomes irrelevant, for loving our neighbor will be no problem.


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