Salvation as a Divine Relationship between People

36. Salvation as a Divine Relationship between People

Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: Mark 12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. Mark 12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.

If someone were to ask Jesus today, what do you want from me? We should assume, believe and be saved. So what is Christ’s answer? Love God. How simple! How true! So let’s define and dissect some of these verses. Firstly, love is not what most people in the world think it is. People look at love as something akin to the flu. You have no idea how you got into a love relationship, just generally, and you endure it whether good or bad, and when “it is gone”, you have no idea why it is no more in you. This is not biblical. Love in the Bible is always a spiritual activity.

Therefore, love is an act of the will, and circumstances that are favorable or which destroy love really are not so powerful as people want to give them credit. Going deeper, love is a decision that you make and maintain, and it is not affected by the acts of the person you love. God commands us to love our enemies, so how can that be if they wish us evil, and do everything in their power to hurt us?

We must understand that this is not “another gospel“, another way to get into heaven. There is only one way, and that is through the cross work of Jesus Christ. But the essence of Jesus coming to earth to die on the cross is love. The love of God was behind that act, and if you cannot understand what all was entailed in that act of God, you must at least understand that God did it because he loves you. Loving God, because God is love, and God’s love sent Jesus to die for you, is salvation on a more emotional level.

Matthew 5:44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
In other words, love is a spiritual quality within you, and it really is not dependent (neither it’s start nor finish) in the other person’s actions towards you.

God is Love

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

The essence of God is love. This love needs to be reciprocated in order to continue to exist. When a young man loves a young woman, and she absolutely does love him back, the relationship eventually dissolves into nothing. But God is love. If we can understand this correctly, then God wants good for us.

Defining what is love

Love is my sacrifice for your benefit.

Love is a spiritual activity wherein we (those who are initiating the love activity) sacrifice of their own in order to benefit or see good come to the person loved. That same description and understanding can apply perfectly well to God, and his love for us.
But returning to the greatest commandment, God wants this spiritual activity within us. Since God is not visible, and we cannot sacrifice things so easily and give them to God (even the giving of money to God is seen by many Christians as a burden hard to bear), God uses “others” (other people) in the passage to help us understand. God knows our hearts, especially spiritually. So God does not need anything to know what we are. But God wants us to understand how little we are like God. Loving a person is a spiritual quality, that is a spiritual action of that person’s will. God can teach us how much we lack by simply showing us how little patience we have.

So we need to see this as a line, with two extremes as endpoints, and we are usually somewhere in between the two endpoints. One is to kill another person because of hate (the opposite of love) and the other is to die protecting the life and welfare of the other person.

Matthew 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Jesus explained that God will judge us by what we do to others. Since every other human is also like us, made in the image of God, what you do to your fellow humans is what you would do to Jesus if he were present.

What this means practically?

The problem that most people in the world do not understand (including the majority of Christians) is that conflict, aggression, jealousy, etc. is the opposite of loving, and we are defined because we love.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. 1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 1 John 4:10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Why should I love my spouse?

If a person is saved and understands this, then consider that a person does not love somebody else because they first loved them. They love their spouse, for example, simply because this is the command of God. God sees evidence of salvation when you selfless love others, and if you are saved, your life should abound in examples of this love.