As Jesus journeyed toward Jerusalem and the final chapter of his earthly life, he encountered all sorts of people who asked him all sorts of questions. Among them was a young scribe (an interpreter of The Law) who asked: “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” You may define that phrase (“eternal life”) as you choose. In all likelihood, in this specific passage, the scribe simply meant “authentic” life, life worth the living.

In any event, Jesus answered him with one of his most famous quotations. “You shall love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, AND you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” That single text could be the basis for years’ worth of blogs. For now, I want to make it the basis just of this one.

Love, according to Christ, is a matter of the heart (kind of like the line from Jerry McGuire: “You had me at hello”). “Heart And Soul”… “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” … “Heartbreak Hotel” … “You Gotta Have Heart.” Love is a matter of a feeling so deep that it often transcends speech and can only be sung. But, Jesus went further than that and described love as a matter of the soul. In New Testament thought, “soul” = “essence.” Not just thoughts. Not just words. Not just songs. But, said Jesus, do we love and honor God with our essence, with all that we have and are?

And how is that essence formed and fashion? Christ adds a third word, saying that love of God is a matter of the mind. The author of Proverbs wrote: “Whatsoever a person thinks in his heart, so he is.” Do we contemplate God and what God wants of us? Does God figure into our thoughts and decisions on daily bases? Is God relegated to a Sunday morning activity, or do we ponder faith on Mondays and Thursdays, as well? Our essence becomes what we think about day by day.

And then, said Christ, love is a matter of strength. A friend of mine used to call it “putting feet to our prayers.” It’s easy to speak in religious tones about how deep is our love for God. But, it’s not always that easy to live it. In this context, “strength” is the word that bridges the gap between love of God and love of neighbor. How do we show God that we love God? One of the surest ways is when we express love to other people. You recall the words from I John: “Whoever says he loves God but hates his neighbor is a liar. For you cannot love God, whom you have not seen, if you hate your neighbor whom you have seen.” Do we have the strength to love God by loving people?

Let me tell you about a child who did. Several years ago a story appeared in the news about a six-year-old boy named Timmy. He donated blood for his sister who was facing surgery. As he lay on the table in a Los Angeles hospital, the blood being drawn from his arm into a bag to be used for his sister, Timmy said to the doctor: “When do I die?” The doctor asked what he meant. He wasn’t going to die. But Timmy, only six, had literally believed that by giving his blood away, he would cease to live. But, he was willing to do so in order that his sister might continue to live. That was not just talking about love; that was a willingness to put love into action. “You shall love the Lord your God… with all your strength. And, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Most of us will never have to do anything as dramatic as that. But, the fact is, in small but significant ways every day, if we love God we will demonstrate it by loving people, even sometimes sacrificially.

Like I said, there’s enough material in this lesson for countless blogs. But, for now, let stop with just this one. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus answered: “You shall love the Lord your God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, AND you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”