Originally posted on Facebook on Thursday, June 26, 2025.

"Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31) has been heavy on my heart and the word that is in my spirit is "Oneness".

"Oneness" is a characteristic of God.

"The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.'"
– Mark 12:29

Everything God creates reflects His Oneness.

Separation and division, by contrast, are from the evil one.

But Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). And, He does so with this teaching that we find in Mark 12.

When I read the word of God, I'm often just as amazed by what God does not say as what He does say.

God could have told us to love our neighbor in countless ways, but He chose this one: "love your neighbor as yourself". I believe this is saying not to love my neighbor like or in a similar way that I love myself, but to love them as me.

This is an awesomely high bar that I fall totally short of.

I repent.

And I'm praying for His heart to see you as one with me—a heart that would not permit your harm, that knows I'm crippled without you and does everything it can not to lose you, and that has the wisdom to understand how it is all held together: Jesus Christ.

I believe Jesus Christ is the only thing powerful enough to hold it all together. (Colossians 1:17)

He is the only way to Oneness.

Wait a minute. What about Matthew 10:34?

"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword."

This is an excellent point because it highlights what is necessary for Oneness: being separated us from what separates us (which is what His sword is against), but what is most important to Oneness is the only thing that can truly unify and hold all things together—Christ.

This is the context of the preceding and following verses: Matthew 10:33 "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." and Matthew 10:37 "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me."

Now, back to Mark 12. In verses 12:32-33, a scribe affirms Jesus' teaching of the law that there is no greater commandment than to love God with everything, and to love your neighbor as yourself. Yet in the very next verse (Mark 12:34), Jesus acknowledges that the scribe answered wisely, but replies, "You are not far from the kingdom of God".

If the scribe answered correctly according to the law, why isn't he instead in the kingdom of God?!

Because, when Jesus said, "You are not far from the kingdom of God," He was not talking about the law. Jesus was speaking of Himself, which the scribe had not yet embraced as the Christ which is necessary to enter into the kingdom.

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
– John 14:6

I pray and press toward this call to Oneness.

Jesus is the way.

#Oneness #One #Communion #PerfectOurLove