Why Loving God Requires Emotion And Desire - Mark 12:28-31 Series

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Mark 12:28-31 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" 29 "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Review: Love God with your heart

Employer vs. Marriage Relationship

Think for a moment about the difference between an employer-employee arrangement and the husband-wife relationship. The arrangement with your employer is very simple - you do the work, he gives you a paycheck. Your feelings about him really do not matter as long as they do not interfere with your job performance. The measure of how good an employee you are is based only on how well you serve your employer. If you do great work, you are a great employee. That is really the only requirement on your end – do good work.

But what happens if you approach your marriage that way? Usually divorce. When a marriage becomes an arrangement – “I will earn an income, provide for the family, do my chores, and be pleasant and civil and nice to you…” but there is no desire to be with your spouse, no love, no enjoyment – the marriage is dead in the water.

The wife who says, “I will do whatever I’m required to do, but I have no desire to be with you” is not functioning as a wife. It is fine to have that attitude toward an employer, but not a spouse.

So, which one serves as a model for the Christian life? Do we relate to God the way we relate to an employer, or the way we relate to a spouse? Which comparison do you see in Scripture? The comparison is always with marriage. In fact, that is the reason marriage exists – to have a living example of the relationship between God and His people. That is why God designed the marriage relationship to be so different from all other human relationships.

So ask yourself right now – “Is my relationship with God more like the ideal employer/employee arrangement, or more like the ideal marriage?” For so many Christians it is an arrangement, not a relationship. “I will serve You and obey You and be committed to You; You forgive my sins and take me to heaven.” That is the arrangement. And they measure their relationship with God in terms of their performance in serving Him. But when Jesus gave the Great Commandment, the command that not only summarizes the whole law but also serves as the principle upon which the entire Bible depends, it was not, “Serve the Lord your God.” It was “Love the Lord your God.” If you try your hardest to serve and obey God with all your strength every day, but there is no emotional component to your love, that is woefully inadequate.

Emotion Required

Even if you put the Greek word agape on the rack and twist it beyond recognition so that it has no emotional component to it, you still have to deal with all the other emotional aspects of the faith – like joy, and delight, and hope. What do you do with Psalm 33:1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous … 3 shout for joy? Do you read that and say, “Oh, that’s not literal. That’s a figure of speech that really means Mumble ‘thank you’ once in a while to God”? Shout for joy means shout for joy, and there is no asterisk with a note saying, “Unless, of course, you’re the non-emotional personality type.” Just like there is no asterisk in John 3:16 that says, “Unless of course you’re the non-trusting type.” You may very well have non-trusting kind of personality, but you are still required to trust God. You may have a non-friendly kind of personality, but that does not excuse you from the command to be kind. You may have a pessimistic personality but that does not exempt you from the command to hope in the Lord. Personality type is never grounds for dismissing the clear command of God’s Word.

Psalm 33:3 Shout for joy.

Psalm 98:6 Shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

Psalm 100:1 Shout for joy to the LORD

Isaiah 49:13 Shout for joy … burst into song

And if you fail to obey that command:

Deuteronomy 28:47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.