Visible Love

Mark 12:28-34

“You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” . . . “Love your neighbor as yourself.” No other commandment is greater than these. (Mark 12:30-31)

IN A FAMILIAR PASSAGE written in three of the four biblical Gospels, Jesus answered a question about the greatest commandment. The most important, he said, is to love God with everything in us, and a second equally as important is to love others. All of God’s Word could be summed up in these two commandments, with all other commandments falling into one of the two categories—our vertical love toward God or our horizontal love toward others. They are part of the same package, all wrapped up in their Source.

But what does this love look like? Is it an attitude, an action, or some of both? Is it something that happens to us or a choice we make? These are common questions, usually answered with an emphasis on tangible expressions. While we often internalize faith and resist talking about its works, we do the opposite with love, externalizing it and minimizing its internal, emotional senses. We instinctively know that it has to have some sort of practical effect.

It does. The most transforming power on earth is divine love. But people rarely experience God’s love in an unmediated way—directly from him in some type of individual spiritual experience. The only way for most people to experience his love is through those who carry it. God’s normal means for expressing his love in this world is for those who have experienced it to spread it, demonstrate it, and display it as though he were displaying himself through them.

You may not feel qualified to share that kind of love, but that isn’t the point. You are qualified whether you feel so or not, simply by virtue of having experienced God. In fact, because God’s love is by nature given to those who are undeserving of it, it is best expressed through those who are undeserving of it. That includes all of us. We are all in a position to manifest the love, compassion, and affection of our Father, and we have everything to gain by doing so.

{Lord, make my love visible. Give me opportunities to express it—to you and to others. Let it overwhelm me and overflow from within, affecting those around me with the compassion and affection of your heart. Amen.