ONE EXTRA WORD

Thursday: June 4, 2020

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.

Adverbs as parts of speech are useful in enhancing actions, hence normally, they can be eliminated without affecting meaning of sentences; or so I thought. I tried eliminating ‘ALL’ from today’s text and it read ‘Love the Lord your God with your heart and with your soul and with your mind and with your strength.

Not much seems to have changed, but then it just didn’t sound right. It appeared as though a sense of subjectivity had been introduced in this context and individually, we may choose to define ‘how much’ we present. The presence of ‘ALL’ levels the playing field and subsequently establishes one standard: ‘you must love Him wholly, entirely, absolutely and without exception.

Left on our own, we really will redefine a lot of things as we deem fit, but love of God is that one thing we cannot define to suit our context or circumstances. It is non subjective. Or if you can put it another way, it cannot be done in part but requires our ‘ALL IN, NOTHING WITHHELD’. That element of total surrender is the requirement to love.

Beloved, God wants ‘ALL of you’ and not part of you. All your heart, soul, mind and strength. He desires to be present in every breath you take, every step you make, every thought you ponder on and to be the object of your desire. He wants it ALL. The question is ‘will you give that?’

#sly