I’ve been privileged to review a copy of “Primal” by Mark Batterson. It’s about how today’s church needs to rediscover what the Great Commandment means:
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31).
As Batterson points out, we’re not only not great at the Great Commandment, we’re sometimes not even good at it. The book examines the four ways we are called to love God:
- Heart: compassion
- Soul: wonder
- Mind: curiosity
- Strength: energy
The modern church often went out head-first into the world. Primal encourages us to go heart-first into the world. Loving God with all of our heart means our hearts are broken by the things that break God’s heart. That’s compassion.
Loving God with all of our soul is about rediscovering a sense of wonder. Are we still amazed at grace? Do we find ourselves in awe of beautiful sunsets or falling stars?
Curiosity, or loving God with our minds, is an especially interesting section. The idea behind it is simple: to love God is to know God. A Christ-follower should be a constant learner, seeking out new insights.
When we break a sweat for the good of the kingdom, we’re loving God with all of our strength. It takes energy to follow Jesus. It takes energy to make a difference.
I’ll be writing more later …