Is this a love thing?

Bottom line: Love God with all of who you are. Love all others as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40).

Sometimes I think I tend to make it too complicated, trying to wrap my head around theological shades and nuances. What if this? What if that? But it’s really pretty simple. Love God, love others. Jesus embodies this whole-hearted devotion and invites us to live in it with him. When we follow him, we follow this relationship of simplicity.

Loving is not about having all my questions answered or having my life all figured out. I can love without all the information and without knowing how the future unfolds. In fact, love requires that I do so. The last thing produced by information and knowledge is love.

Loving is not about feeling like loving. It’s really more of a choice, an act of the will, whether I feel like it or not.

Loving is not selective. I don’t get to choose when I love God. I don’t get to choose whom I love. I don’t get to make judgment on who deserves love. That’s already been decided.

Loving is total. The equation of love: Heart + Mind + Soul + Strength. That’s pretty much all of who I am.

To love God is to love others. I can’t conveniently turn the love switch on and off, depending on the people I’m around. If I don’t love others, I’ve pretty much told you by my behavior that I don’t love God.

Loving others is not always easy. Jesus quotes part of Leviticus 19:18 as the flip-side of the same coin of the love commandment. The entire Leviticus verse says this: “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” To love is to forgive because God forgives—not always easy.

I wonder what life would like if we laid aside our conjured complexities and simply followed Jesus and followed him simply.