Love God, Love People Part 2 - Mark 12:28-34
The scribe asks Jesus about the weight of the weighty laws.
Love God with all your heart...
Colossians 3:16... Believers should be constantly drawing from the scriptures! It's not just good for you, but for those God has put in your life. Your wife and kids need a godly husband and father! When you aren't that, you're actually hurting them.
Proverbs 13:20... Whoever walks with the wise will be wise. Surround yourself with the wise.
Preaching at its best contains error. But in Scripture itself, there is no error!
Love your neighbor as yourself...
Yes, you need to love yourself in a sense (don't beat yourself down). But popular psychology emphasizes this beyond God's intent.
You hear, "Before you can love your neighbor, you have to learn to love yourself." There's a healthy amount of self-love, but our culture is obsessed with the love of self, to the point that it takes precedence over the love of others. Self-love is blinding! We're already good at prioritizing ourselves (witness a toddler!) Everyone naturally does what's right in their own eyes.
According to God's Word, the chief marker of the end of time is that people will be lovers of self! Too much self-love gave us sin in the beginning, and will cause our downfall in the end.
Jesus says: Love people like you wish to be loved!
He says anxiousness, anxiety, is part of humanity, "today has enough worry of its own."
Through faith in Jesus, you belong to the Father! You find your worth not in what others think, but in what God says about you!
When you find your worth in Him, only then you can be a blessing to those around you!
What makes you valuable? Go to the cross! That's how valuable you are.
Two thoughts...
1. Being near the kingdom is not the same as being inside it...
Jesus's message has always been a message of the Kingdom. Repent, and believe in Jesus, then you're in the Kingdom.
The scribe here is near the Kingdom. Many are far from it. Many seem indifferent to the things of God, no desire to read the Bible, to pray. So we pray for their hard hearts!
Agreeing with him places us near the Kingdom... but loving him places us in the Kingdom! We must give him our heart, not just our mind.
So the big question: Am I in the Kingdom, or am I only near the Kingdom?
You prove you love the Lord when you follow him faithfully! We must endure till the end. We must follow him privately, not just publicly. We must let go of the things of this world completely!
2. Joyous love...
All the Old Testament commands two things: love God, and love people.
God pours his love into our hearts, so we can take that love to the people he gives us! Our work is to love God and love people.
In this, there's a fullness of joy! Walking in his love is obeying his commandments, and this brings us to joy!
Warning: life can be very hard. People fail you. Systems of the world fail you. Satan wants you miserable! He wants your to believe the dark things in you are what define you. But God's mercies are new each day! Your past does not define you!
Everything is forgiven! You are not defined by your shame!
You are not owned by the things that have hurt you. In him, we live and move and have our being! It's Christ who lives in me! He makes known to us the path of life! In his presence is fullness of joy!
Jesus shows us how to live a life worth living!
There's no joy in selfishness, in self-focused living. To walk with Christ is fullness of joy! It's awesome to love the people around you!
1 John 3:14... We know we're saved because we live the brothers. If you don't love, you're dead!
Choose Jesus! Choose life, love, and joy!
A footnote...
Objections:
If I love people, does that mean they'll love me back? No. And that hurts. But if you refuse to let others in, you're living a dark, cold life, hurting yourself worse than if you got stabbed in the back by one of the people God brought into your life.
Love and pray for your enemies! Love your neighbor as yourself!