"You are not far from the kingdom of God.” Jesus

A passage where we find Jesus summarizing the principle and the core message of the entire Bible in two major and equal commandments and i.e. "The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these” Mark 12 29-31. This passage looks so casual, simple, easy, and not at all challenging to an extent most of the time it is brilliantly misinterpreted, sometimes not given much thought to and sometimes ignored too. 

No human being with a fallen nature can possibly love God with all his heart, soul, and strength 24 hours a day. It’s humanly impossible but only through genuine encounter with God and by accepting the savior we are transformed and start desiring more for God.

In the same passage we notice a scribe paraphrases this yet once again and Jesus immediately remarked, "You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (12:34). If you notice the scribe was expressing his complete endorsement to the two supreme commandments and acknowledges that there is no one beside Him and then combining both the commandments, “Love God, and Love others” in one verse equaling the importance of the first and the second. He added further by saying, ‘fulfilling these two commandments are more important than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices.’.

Wow! what an enlightenment. Let me ask you, this includes me too, how close are we to matching up with these two supreme commandments? Are you just like the Pharisees and Sadducee's trying to fulfill the requirements for your personal satisfaction? What does it mean to you to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength without just meeting your spiritual schedules as a mere duty? I want to put my understanding on the four areas briefly. You may meditate too for perfect conviction.

Loving God with all your heart: Our hearts have the capacity to contain the most high God, failing to accept Him can change the space into a trash can, (Dustbin). A regular examination in the light of His word will keep it clean and ability to love Him more. The Bible says the heart is deceitful and desperately sick, (Jeremiah 17:9) A regular check in the light of His word can only keep it pure and invigorate the desire to Love him more.

With all your soul: It is the part of every human being that lasts eternally after the body experiences death. MacDonald said, “You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” In other words, person hood is not based on having a body. A soul is what is required. Repeatedly in the Bible, people are referred to as “souls” (Exodus 31:14, Proverbs 11:30). It is the part of us that is purified and protected by the truth and the work of the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:14). Your soul connects when you connect through Prayer and reading His word with a pure heart.

With all your mind: How much are we informed about the truth and about God's word. Reading is not a one-time spiritual event, the more we read including good books, the more we are edified and inspired, and it helps us to stay connected and love him more and more. Logical consistency is so important and should make sense which will help you to love him because of the conviction in the mind and heart.

With all your strength: Are we physically fit? It is important to be physically disciplined to involve in displaying physical gesture to love God. Bible talks about incidents where people paid homage by falling face down, kneeling, standing long in prayer, in one incident we read Elijah putting his head between his knees and praying and many other gestures besides this is also found. This means you and I should be physically fit and active and that generates vigor and agility to our mind and heart.

The second part of the great commandment, ‘love others as we love ourselves’. This is not confined and conditioned to social connectivity. This is where we understand others genuinely and be available at the point of their need. God's love was always substantiated with extreme giving. Can we seriously realign the way we love God? How close are we to the kingdom of God?

Blessings.