Love Says It All

KEY VERSE: “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. … Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” —Mark 12:30,31

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Mark 12:28-37

WE ARE TOLD that if we love our Master, then our love will be demonstrated by our obedience to his commandments, by our willingness to lay down our lives for the brethren, and by appreciation of the truth and faithfully using it in building up the brethren in our most holy faith, as well as in telling the whole world the glad tidings of the kingdom.

Thus our love for Jesus and for our Heavenly Father is taken out of the abstract, visionary realm, and made a practical, understandable power in our lives. While we remain in the flesh, we cannot see God, nor can we see Jesus; but we can ‘see’ and appreciate the precious truths of the Word which reveal their characters to us. And we can see our brethren, and can lay down our lives for them. May this love indeed, become an all-possessing influence in our lives, impelling us to sacrifice everything in the service of Him whom we love more than life itself!

Jesus summed up the thought beautifully: “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”—John 14:21

Outstanding among Jesus’ commandments is the one in which he enjoins upon his followers the necessity of loving one another as he loved them. His was a love which expressed itself in sacrifice. It rose far above natural affection and impelled the Master to lay down his life for those who became his disciples and espoused his Father’s cause. Conversely, no matter how much we may claim to love Jesus, if we are indifferent to the needs of our brethren, it means that our professions are vain and empty.

There are wonderful instructions in the Sermon on the Mount from Jesus himself. They are so important that Jesus likened anyone who ignored them to a person who builds his house upon the sand, only to have it destroyed when the storms beat upon it.—Matt. 7:21-27

One of these “sayings,” or commandments, has to do with our bearing witness to the truth. Jesus explained that his followers were to be the “light of the world,” and said that we should not keep our light under a “bushel.” Then he added, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”—Matt. 5:14-16

Our professions of love for Jesus would be but as empty words should we fail to obey this commandment.

We will also be enthusiastic about the blessings of restitution which the Lord has provided for all mankind. Just think, the restitution feature of the kingdom was so important to God that he caused all his prophets to write about it! (Acts 3:21-24) And God so loved the world, not merely the church, that he gave his Son to die in order that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”—John 3:16

If we thrill at the thought of the coming times of restitution of all things, we will want to talk about this theme of the prophets, and we will want to tell the world about it. To be in this attitude of mind and heart does not indicate a lack of love for Christ, or for God, but the opposite, for it reveals our appreciation of one of the outstanding features of the plan of God.

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.”—John 14:15

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