Love, A Two Way Street

All scripture references, unless otherwise noted, are from the King James Version of the Holy Bible. 
The Bible says in 1st John 4:8, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." God's love for us is unutterable. God's love brought the Lord Jesus, when He was "in the form of God," to this world of sin and sorrow to become the acceptable sacrifice for our sins and make us acceptable to God. (See Philippians 2:5-11) The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:3 when speaking to the nation of Judah,  "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Yes, "God is love," as the Bible says. But love is a two way street.

In Matthew 22:35-38 The Bible says, "Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.   This is the first and great commandment." Have you ever told the Lord Jesus that you loved Him and felt that you couldn't express yourself adequately? When you love the Lord Jesus "...with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength," (See Mark 12:30) you will love God in the way that is acceptable to Him. But what does it mean to love the Lord "...with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength?" I am good at telling the Lord Jesus that I love Him with all my heart, but what about my soul, mind and strength?

In Psalm 103:1 King David said, "... Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name." God spoke of David, "...and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will." (See Acts 13:22) It would seem to me that King David loved Jehovah his God the way that God wanted to be loved. Do we? We do love the Lord Jesus with all our hearts, but do we love Him with everything that is within us? If we do, that means we will exert all our life, all our thinking, and all our power to forward His cause.

What is the cause of God? The second commandment, Jesus said, is like unto the first, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." (See Mark 12:31) The Lord Jesus said in Mark, "There is none other commandment greater than these." And in Matthew 22:40, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." It is no wonder then that James, the Lord's brother called loving your neighbor as yourself, "...the royal law..." (See James 2:8) You mean to say that I need to love that jerk that lives down the street from me as myself? If he is hungry, are you well fed? If he is inadequately clothed are you warm? (See James 2:15-16) If he is lost in sin, do you care? I believe that that is what the Lord Jesus meant.

One more thought. We were not the originators of love. The Bible says in 1st John 4:19, "We love him, because he first loved us." If our love for the Lord Jesus is true, we will love Him as David did, with everything that is within us and we will love every soul as our self. After all, love is a two way street!