Jesus observes that life orbits around two great commandments: love God with heart, soul, mind and strength and love neighbor as ourselves. We may reach for every other goal, but if we have failed or forgotten these two, we’ve reached for less than the best.
How, though, do we love in this way?
Because it’s clear that such devotion demands much of us. It’s far more comfortable and convenient to dabble in God, to treat God as a side-gig, to make God a means toward all our other ends rather than the only end that means everything. It’s far more simple (and self-serving) to love only those who look like us, to ignore injustice against those unlike us, to remain in cliques and bubbles and white-washed churches.
How do we engage in such extreme and exceptional love?
On the one hand, this two-tiered love is the result of our tireless labor. It flows as a result of clear prioritizing and constant practice. Simply put, love takes work. Bell hooks writes,
“I think the true work of love is just so hard.”
We will never learn to love every neighbor of every color, class, creed and capability without strenuous and strong labor. Bob Goff writes,
“That’s what love does – it pursues blindly, unflinchingly, and without end. When you go after something you love, you’ll do anything it takes to get it, even if it costs everything.”
To live and love as Jesus desires will cost us everything.
This is the great question of Jesus’ religion: Will I love God and every human in a way that requires every ounce of the resolve God’s given me?
On the other hand, this two-tiered love is not just the result of our tireless labor. It also stems from the Spirit’s unequalled strength. The love we have been called to is one that crosses so many divides, tears down so many walls, acts in such contradiction to the spirit of the age that it is beyond human capacity. It is so large that not even a lifetime is long enough to master it. If we believe we possess by ourselves the might required by Jesus’ love commandments, we do not understand his commandments. Jesus’ vision is so substantial that it cannot be lived by means that are natural. The Spirit of Love is necessary for a life of love.
The Spirit provides power. Scripture uses many images to imagine this resilience. We’ll explore six. This holy fortitude comes in the form of fire, flow and fruit. This holy will also arrives in the garb of wind, word and wine. The Spirit makes possible that which on our own is impossible, a life of unlimited and unequalled passion for every person and the Prime Mover who’s made them.
