Mission:
To Love God - Totally - To Love our Neighbor - Equally
Biblical Principle
MK 12:28-31 …“Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Application
The word Love in this passage is translated from the greek work Agape. Agape is in the verb form which means love in action. So Love or Agape describes an action of Love one is to take purposefully and intentionally, self-sacrificially. This is best illustrated as this:
So we understand by this passage in Mark that Jesus is telling us that the Lord our God is one God and we are to serve only God. Therefore as His disciples we are to passionately Love God with every part of our being and this Love is to be self-sacrificial, with our whole heart (sincerity of both our thoughts and feelings), with the all our soul (spiritual depth or character), with all our mind (intellectually and understanding), with all our strength (total physical ability). Secondarily our love is to be equally expressed through our efforts and energy toward others with as much love that we have for our self. Our love for others will be dependent upon our ability to love ourselves. We will see the outward expressions or manifestation of this love being fulfilled by our involvement and concern for others spiritual life, their relationship with God as well as acts of mercy toward people in need.