Mark 12:30-31
“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.†The second is equally important: “Love your neighbor as yourself.†No other commandment is greater than these.
Apparently anyone who was familiar with the scriptures of the time probably had heard these verses countless times. We find them in Deut. 6:4 and in Lev 19:18. These passages were the most taught and discussed portions of scripture because they were the books that Moses wrote, but for some reason people often looked for mystical formulas and fixated on dogma to feel spiritual.
Just as people often missed the point in Biblical times, I think we often miss the whole or wholistic message of the Bible. Jesus brings up a passage that most everyone is familiar with but for some reason the simplicity of loving and following God and loving others has gotten convoluted in a mire of rituals, rules and religiosity. So many of us have just missed the point: God is love and God is life; every facet of life. It’s from the time we get up until the time we lay our head down at night that God wants to be engaged with us. We are being called by scriptures (reiterated by Christ) to love Him at an emotional level, a spiritual level, an intellectual level and a physical level because that is how He created us.
I believe that this is how we are to love others as well. Just how does that look? Well, I can love someone at an emotional level by sharing in their pain and joy. I can love someone at a spiritual level by praying with them and for them. I can love someone at an intellectual level by teaching and discipling them and I can love them at a physical level by embracing them, giving them food and shelter. It seems pretty simple to me.
Tags: Wholistic Ministry
