Five Stones: The Essentials of Manning-UpНамуна

Stone 5 – Love: You Give What You Get.

“’And you shall 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: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:30-31. ESV

We have truly saved the best stone for last. Like a sweet dessert after a solid meal, love is the last of our five stones, but definitely not the least.

Loving God is the greatest calling of our lives. Truly loving Him with every fiber of our being – our mind, our heart, our soul, and even our strength – is the greatest aim in life. And drawing nearer to Him in love, renews our minds, restores our hearts, refreshes our souls, and regenerates our strength.

Next to this we understand that we should love others as ourselves. Yet, we cannot know, understand, or give love if we don’t experience it ourselves. And we cannot expect to find life-giving refreshing love, apart from God. How we experience God’s love, has a direct influence on how well we love others. We can only love because He loved us first (1 John 4:19). Even the godless can only give love to others because they have unknowingly experienced God’s love to some degree (Romans 1:2 & 5:8).

Therefore, the greatest motivation for any of us to ever truly man-up, is love!

· If we truly love, we man-up to serve God and others with a faithful heart.

· If we truly love, we man-up to stay devoted with a courageous soul.

· If we truly love, we man-up to guard mindfully over ourselves and others.

· If we truly love, we man-up to do our work with all our strength.

Yet, loving others as ourselves stems from knowing that we are loved. If we don’t know that God loves us, we might like ourselves very much from a place of pride, or we may be arrogant from a sense of ambition or accomplishment. But only when we realize that God loves us without any strings attached, can we love ourselves enough to love others equally.

Much of what we’ve discussed through this Bible study on manning-up can come across as tough talk, straight shooting or hard hitting. And it is. But when we understand that love is the essential stone of manning-up, we also realize that it is from a place of love that we can find our courage, build our strength, guard with intentionality and stand faithfully. If we are truly open to love, we are truly open to tough talk too, understanding that the heart of it is wise and watchful. Love needs to be tough when it requires action or accountability, but tender when it must be gracious and merciful.

The love of God does not expect anything from us to prove worthy of it. But true love from God drives us to love Him and others from the same sense of availability and acceptance He has already shown us. It enables us to be just and merciful alike, while it inspires us to become better men as well.

Meditations on Manning-up:

- What does it mean to you to love God with all your heart, your soul,
your mind and all your strength?

- How does it look practically to love another as oneself?

- What can we learn from David’s kindness shown in today’s reading?

- What do you need to pray for today?