When Solomon became king of Israel, he asked the Lord to grant him wisdom so he could properly lead the people. God was happy with Solomon’s request and said he would give him wisdom exceeding anybody who lived before or after him.

The Bible describes an example of Solomon’s wisdom (1 Kings Chapter 3): 

Two women who lived together had babies a few days apart. One of the babies died during the night, and the distraught mother switched babies with her roommate and claimed the live baby as hers. The dispute came before King Solomon, and his decision was to ask for his sword so he could cut the baby in half and give half to each mother. At this point, the actual mother quickly said she would rather that the other woman would have the baby than to have him be killed in this manner. Solomon then knew who the real mother was and gave the baby to her.

Why was this strategy successful? 

There is a saying that goes, “Half a loaf is better than none.” 

This adage certainly applies to things like food — when you’re hungry, having some food is better than having none. It can apply to money — if you’re desperate to sell something, getting a portion of the amount you wanted may be better than getting nothing at all. There are probably other things you can think of where “half a loaf is better than none.”

However, there are many examples where this saying does not apply. The baby is obviously one such example. Half of a baby would be a dead baby, so it’s clearly not better than nothing. Half of a car wouldn’t take you anywhere, so it would not be better than nothing. I would also add to this list that being half a servant of God is not something to be happy about in terms of it being better than nothing.

God wants our whole heart, not a portion. He wants our eye to be single in purpose. He wants us to be His servant every day of our lives, not just on church days. We sometimes hear the terms “spiritual life” and “natural life,” as if our lives are divided in half. We only have one life, and God wants to be the master of that entire life — the life we gave to Christ at the water’s edge.

When the plan of salvation was enacted, God could have looked at how Jesus was tortured (crown of thorns, whipped, mocked, etc.) and said that would be good enough to purchase our salvation. But He didn’t stop halfway — Jesus paid the full price for our sins through his crucifixion, and we are the full beneficiaries of this great sacrifice.

When we get to heaven, I think we would be disappointed if we discovered that our mansion was a timeshare or that it was only half built or that it had a lease that expired halfway through eternity. The Lord has provided full salvation for us, and all He asks is that we be fully on board as part of His family. Christ didn’t stop at half a loaf in purchasing our salvation, and we can’t be satisfied with half a loaf in our service to God.