In the Gospel of Mark, chapter 12, a scribe approaches Jesus with a question. This isn’t just any question—it’s the kind that cuts to the very core of what it means to live a life that matters, a life of substance. The scribe asks, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" And Jesus answers with two that sound deceptively simple: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself.

Let’s pause for a second. Love—it's a word thrown around a lot, and we all have ideas about what it means. But for Jesus, love isn’t just a feeling or a philosophy. It's action. It’s everything. And here’s the kicker: this kind of love—radical, sacrificial, heart-wrenching love—becomes the doorway to abundant life. Jesus says, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God" when you live in this love. Not far. You’re on the edge of something transformative, something eternal.

So today, we’ll dive into what Jesus meant by true love, why it's so central to an abundant life, and how living this way opens us to the full, rich life God has always intended for us.

Point 1: What Does It Mean to Love God with All?

First, let’s start with the "all." Jesus doesn’t just say love God; He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”

That’s a lot of all, isn’t it? Because true love—the kind Jesus is talking about here—demands everything. It’s like when C.S. Lewis said, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.” Love God with all means holding nothing back.

Imagine that for a moment. What would it look like to love God with everything? Your thoughts, your energy, your desires, your actions—completely in sync with what God wants for you.

It’s an invitation to align every part of our lives with God's heartbeat. To start each day asking, “God, how can I bring more love into this world? How can I live fully into the person you’ve created me to be?”

Now, this doesn’t mean that loving God perfectly is some kind of spiritual performance. It's more like being deeply rooted in trust, in relationship. Think of how the psalmist in Psalm 42 says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” There’s a longing, a thirst for God. We love God with all when we allow ourselves to be drawn toward Him in this way, when we surrender to that relationship, letting it fill and shape us. And here’s where the abundant life comes in. Loving God with all opens us to God’s love with all, His love overflowing into us and through us. That’s the abundance. We’re not just receiving God’s love; we’re being completely transformed by it.

Point 2: Loving Your Neighbour as Yourself

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. After telling us to love God with everything, He immediately follows with, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

Think about that for a moment. Loving our neighbours as ourselves sounds like a great idea until we start imagining our actual neighbours. The difficult coworker, the family member who drives us crazy, the person we’d rather avoid at all costs. But Jesus didn’t add conditions here. He didn’t say, “Love your neighbour as long as they’re nice.” He’s talking about a love that is wildly inclusive, the kind of love that brings people together across divides.

This kind of love—the kind Jesus embodies—doesn’t look away from the pain and brokenness in the world; it steps into it. It’s the love seen in the Good Samaritan story (Luke 10:25-37), where the Samaritan, the unexpected outsider, crosses cultural boundaries to care for someone beaten and abandoned.

Love here is risky. It’s inconvenient. But that’s the love Jesus is calling us to—a love that goes out of its way, that costs us something, that refuses to look the other way.

But here’s the paradox: when we live in this self-giving love, we actually receive more than we give. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that “love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” This is the kind of love that grows in us, the kind of love that transforms us. The more we pour out love, the more we find ourselves filled. And this leads to the abundant life Jesus promised—a life rooted in connection, in generosity, in kindness.

Point 3: Loving Ourselves – The Overlooked Command

And here’s the twist. Jesus says, “Love your neighbour as yourself.” Which implies something important: we can’t fully love others if we’re not grounded in a healthy, God-given love for ourselves. Now, this isn’t about self-centeredness or putting ourselves above others. It’s about recognizing that God made us in His image, with unique gifts, dreams, and purposes. It’s like that line from Henri Nouwen: “Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the 'Beloved.'”

Think about that. We are beloved. God delights in us. When we love ourselves as God loves us, we’re reminded of our worth, our value. We begin to see ourselves through God’s eyes, which helps us to see others through those same eyes of grace and compassion.

And it’s in this self-acceptance—this recognition that we are deeply loved and cherished by God—that we’re able to love others from a place of true abundance. We’re not just trying to meet others’ needs because it’s the “right thing” to do. We’re doing it because we’ve experienced God’s love ourselves, and it’s just flowing out.

Point 4: The Abundant Life in Loving God, Others, and Ourselves This brings us back to the promise Jesus made in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” This isn’t just about eternal life; it’s about a life here and now that’s full, rich, meaningful. But what’s beautiful about this full life is that it’s not about what we possess; it’s about how we love.

The abundant life Jesus speaks of isn’t found in wealth, success, or status. It’s found in the relationships we build, in the kindness we offer, in the grace we give, and in the moments when we let love lead us beyond ourselves.

Imagine if we loved the people around us with the same tenacity and faithfulness as God loves us. Imagine a church, a family, a community rooted in this kind of love—where people truly felt seen, heard, valued. That’s what the Kingdom of God looks like. Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” When we live out this love, we become the Kingdom of God in the world.

Conclusion: The Invitation to True Love

So, as we close, let’s remember that Jesus didn’t give us these commandments to burden us. He gave them to free us. To free us from self-centeredness, from the lies that we’re unworthy or unloved, from the walls that keep us isolated. In loving God with all, in loving others as ourselves, we’re stepping into a way of life that’s expansive, joyful, abundant. 

The world will know us, Jesus said, by our love. Not by our knowledge, our wealth, our achievements. By our love. This is the true measure of a life well-lived. And if we lean into this kind of love, if we choose to live each day with open hearts, we’ll find ourselves not just living—but truly alive.