All You Need is Love

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law?”

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Love of God; love of self; love of others; to quote the old song: “All you need is love.” The scripture says that God is love. It makes sense, then, that all we really need is God. But, does saying one has God make it so?

  In our moments of clarity, we all know that’s not how it works. To have a God, whatever you imagine him to be, is to be subject to God’s rule. God, by definition, is the ultimate sovereign; the final authority---alpha and omega. A god shaped to our specifications and subject to our definitions of morality is a creation, not a god. One who is the supplier of wants and needs; who comes only when we call and make no demands is a servant not a god.

A life of subservience is not the role most people choose to play. Nevertheless, it is the only role open to us if we are to have God. There is one throne to the soul; he who sits on it rules and receives worship. Christ will not take the throne by force. He will not share it. He will not sit upon it because He sat with our grandmother. Love must invite Christ to the throne. Love able to do that holds self in balance and flows to others.

“I am the LORD thy God…Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”