Kingdom Practice (2)

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is thefirst and great commandment. And thesecond islike it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22.37-40

To understand the Bible
If you want to understand the Bible, you have to make love the aim of your quest. This is the argument Augustine put forth in the opening book of his great treatise on understanding Scripture, On Christian Doctrine. Scripture is about God, God is love, therefore, if you want to learn the Scriptures, look to learn love. If your passion is to know the Lord, your goal must be to love.

Jesus put it as plainly as possible: The Old Testament Law and the Prophets – whether Old or New – depend for their being understood on our having love as the treasure we’re trying to increase. If you only read the Scriptures in order to gain information or perspective, or to increase your understanding of doctrine, then you’re not reading them according to the purpose for which they were given. God gave the Scriptures to equip us for good works, works motivated by and expressive of love (2 Tim. 3.15-17).

And everything about the Scriptures – every book, section, story, doctrine, or theme – is intended by God to promote the practice of love.

God is love
But what is love? We’ve said it is the great treasure in which our hearts and lives are to be invested, and that the whole of Scripture is given to encourage us in lives of love. Love is the defining practice of all who have made the Kingdom turn. The Apostle John said that God is love (1 Jn. 4:8). We may turn that around and say that love is God.

To love, in other words, is to relate to other beings as God does. We know from our Lord Jesus that, in the divine Godhead, the Father, Son, and Spirit relate to one another in love, in such a way as that they share in glory together (Jn. 17.20-24). The Father loves the Son and so gives Him the world and a people for His own possession, whom He loves, saves, sanctifies, and brings into His glory with the Father. The Son loves the Father and so set aside, for a season, certain of His divine prerogatives in order to do the Father’s bidding in destroying death and Satan and saving from the destructive power of sin a people for God’s own possession. The Spirit loves the Father and the Son by being the motive power of the Kingdom for making God’s plan and the Son’s work come to fruition. And the Father and Son love the Spirit by giving Him such a central role in accomplishing the New Covenant.

But most of all the three Persons of the Godhead love one another and take pleasure in one another by their continuous, open, free, and full communion with one another, in love.

If only we could learn to love like that!

The Apostle Paul captured the essence of God’s love when he wrote, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Cor. 13.4-8). This love is what God is like. To treasure love is to treasure God. Make knowing God your supreme passion, seek Him, know Him, follow Him, and serve Him, and you will live in love.

God’s love and God’s Word
God is love. It stands to reason, therefore, that His Word – the Bible – would be all about love, teaching those who read it how they may enter into the life of love with God and for His glory.

As we read and study the Scriptures, therefore, we must let love be our aim, as Augustine insisted. The Bible is able to instruct and fit us for every work of love, toward God and toward our neighbors. But learning such love must be the thing we treasure most, what we think about and yearn for as we come before the Lord in His Word and prayer.

Make love your treasure as that treasure is embodied in God Himself. Then mine the many and varied spiritual veins of Scripture for the gold, silver, and precious gems of divine truth and love which they yield. As you read and study, make it your aim to improve love for God and for the people around you. If you do, you will find that the meaning of Scripture comes clear, your heart rises to the challenge, your mind opens to the prospects, your conscience resonates positively with the conviction of love’s value – and you will begin to be a more loving person in all your ways.

Next steps: What are some ways you would like to grow in loving God and the people around you? What are your greatest needs in this area? Talk with some Christian friends about these questions. Agree to pray together for a period of time that you may all increase in love for God and your neighbor. Meet together from time to time to share your progress.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Kingdom Practice, is the final installment of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

In tomorrow’s Crosfigell the monk Moucan brings us into his prayers to help us discover “The Lord Our Strength.” Sign-up for this thrice-weekly podcast/newsletter at the website, www.ailbe.org.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.