“Love God!” Mark 12:28-34

“Love God!” Mark 12:28-34

An Expositional Sermon
Augustine famously wrote in his Confessions: “My entire hope is exclusively in your very great mercy. Grant what you command, and command what you will.” [1] The scribe agreed with Jesus, and he acknowledged that love of God and neighbor is greater than offerings and sacrifices. Jesus acknowledged that this scribe wasn’t far from the Kingdom of God. He isn’t in the kingdom of God, because he doesn’t have a full knowledge of who Christ is, but he does rightly understand the law. God demands all of our love to Himself, and out of that that our love extend to our neighbor. But here’s the problem. We can’t fulfill this law. Augustine got that. God must give what He commands. And He has richly done this in Christ. Jesus perfectly loved God, and perfectly loved us. God richly gives what He commands. The love of a Christian is a love borne in our lives through the Holy Spirit in the fruit of the Spirit. God commands our love, and we came up completely short. Your heart is connected to what you hear. And you cannot truly and fully love unless you know of the love of God in Christ. Don’t be content to merely be near the kingdom. Enter into God’s kingdom by faith alone in Christ alone. Let your life fill up with God’s love for you, and let His love overflow your heart to love others.

[1] Augustine Saint Augustine Confessions, Oxford World’s Classics Trans. Henry Chadwick (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 202.