The Greatest Command
Any conscientious Christian has probably asked him/herself at some point during a busy day on earth "Am I good with God?" "Am I following what the pastor talked about on Sunday?” “Am I focused on what I should be?”
These are excellent questions to ask on a regular basis. Too often we can get caught up in the flow of the world's system without much thought. We understand the challenge of living for God in a world that is bent on rejecting Him. If we are sincere about obeying God, we want to know what He requires of us and to follow Him.
One man in the Bible had the same concerns. He grew up in a Jewish society filled with rules. While these rules were designed to help the Jews obey God's laws, they often took the place of God Himself. Obeying the rules became the goal instead of obeying God.
The man asked Jesus “Which commandment is the most important of all?” There were over 600 commands, statements, and principles in the law. It would have been helpful to know which one was at the top of the list.
Jesus replied “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.” (Luke 10:27)
If Jesus boiled down devotion to God in one concise statement, it would benefit us to fully understand what he was saying. Think about all the dos and don’ts that move in and out of your mind each day. Think about your quest to honor God. Does it seem like you don’t know where to start and where to finish sometimes?
I think Jesus was saying “this is the heart of it – this is what it is all about.” Jesus wanted to cut through some of the confusion of what it meant to be a God follower and make it real plain and simple. However, it might be difficult to extract the full meaning of Jesus’ statement when we’ve been living in a culture of mushy love and following your feelings. We are used to the saying “I love you with all my heart.” But, does this sentiment reflect what Jesus was saying when he instructed us to love God with all our heart? Did Jesus instruct the man to maintain feelings of affection for God? Or was there more to it?
I’m sometimes confused by what it means to love God with every part of me. Does that mean I lock myself in a room and read my Bible all day? Does that mean I have fluttery feelings towards God? Does that mean I need to jump up and down and shout to God that I love Him?
I think it is helpful to look at Paul’s message on love in I Corinthians 13. He shows what love looks like so we don’t have to rely on a subjective feeling to know what it is. Paul starts by listing several spiritual items that most Christians might think are an accurate gauge of spiritual growth. If you wanted to know whether or not you were good with God, you might look to some of the practices that Paul lists: speaking in tongues, prophecying, understanding the mysteries of the Bible, effectively believing for miracles… If you see someone regularly operating in these gifts you might think “that guy must be really close to God. If I get close to God I'll be able to those things too.” No one would doubt this person’s commitment to God. Yet, Paul warns that if someone isn’t doing those things in love then they are not loving God. We see again that it all comes down to love. But, Paul makes it clear that loving God is not about doing spiritual things. There is a warning here that if I see these gifts operating in my life, I might delude myself into thinking that I am loving God when I am really not.
Paul also warns that I can give away everything I have and even surrender my very life for a good cause, but this doesn’t mean I truly love God. This warning certainly hits home. I’m sure there have been times when I’ve done acts of service for people but it really wasn’t done in love. It might have been with a slight grumble, or perhaps with an heir of pride – a display of how service oriented I am. According to Paul, the meat of love is patience, kindness, humility, self-sacrificing, enduring, forgiving, and being hopeful.
You can give $100 to the homeless man on the street corner and not be loving God.
You can pray for an AIDS patient to be healed and not be loving God.
You can lead a small group Bible study where everyone walks away amazed at your biblical insight and not be loving God.
What’s so striking about this chapter is that we can be involved in very religious looking activities and not be loving God. If we judge our spiritual maturity by our spiritual activity we might deceive ourselves. It’s easy to get in a spiritual routine where it all revolves around us. We have our 9am prayer time, our 12pm Bible study, and our 7pm small group meeting. We can be committed to Christianity but not be committed to God. We know we are truly walking in love with God when we begin to realize that it is not about us at all. It is not about how good serving or prophecying makes us feel. It is not about how great a sacrifice we make when we go on a missions trip. It is not about how pious we feel when we help an old lady with her garbage. Whenever we become the focus of our service, we are losing our love for God. Our love for God is to be like a marriage covenant relationship. From the moment we say “I do” we surrender a life focused on self and we commit to a life focused on Christ. Everything we do is done to Him and for His glory. We cease to be the centerpiece. When we are living for Christ, we don’t measure our love for Him by a plentitude of religious activities, but by how our entire lives – even the mundane moments – are an offering of continual worship to Him.
Any conscientious Christian has probably asked him/herself at some point during a busy day on earth "Am I good with God?" "Am I following what the pastor talked about on Sunday?” “Am I focused on what I should be?”
These are excellent questions to ask on a regular basis. Too often we can get caught up in the flow of the world's system without much thought. We understand the challenge of living for God in a world that is bent on rejecting Him. If we are sincere about obeying God, we want to know what He requires of us and to follow Him.
One man in the Bible had the same concerns. He grew up in a Jewish society filled with rules. While these rules were designed to help the Jews obey God's laws, they often took the place of God Himself. Obeying the rules became the goal instead of obeying God.
The man asked Jesus “Which commandment is the most important of all?” There were over 600 commands, statements, and principles in the law. It would have been helpful to know which one was at the top of the list.
Jesus replied “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.” (Luke 10:27)
If Jesus boiled down devotion to God in one concise statement, it would benefit us to fully understand what he was saying. Think about all the dos and don’ts that move in and out of your mind each day. Think about your quest to honor God. Does it seem like you don’t know where to start and where to finish sometimes?
I think Jesus was saying “this is the heart of it – this is what it is all about.” Jesus wanted to cut through some of the confusion of what it meant to be a God follower and make it real plain and simple. However, it might be difficult to extract the full meaning of Jesus’ statement when we’ve been living in a culture of mushy love and following your feelings. We are used to the saying “I love you with all my heart.” But, does this sentiment reflect what Jesus was saying when he instructed us to love God with all our heart? Did Jesus instruct the man to maintain feelings of affection for God? Or was there more to it?
I’m sometimes confused by what it means to love God with every part of me. Does that mean I lock myself in a room and read my Bible all day? Does that mean I have fluttery feelings towards God? Does that mean I need to jump up and down and shout to God that I love Him?
I think it is helpful to look at Paul’s message on love in I Corinthians 13. He shows what love looks like so we don’t have to rely on a subjective feeling to know what it is. Paul starts by listing several spiritual items that most Christians might think are an accurate gauge of spiritual growth. If you wanted to know whether or not you were good with God, you might look to some of the practices that Paul lists: speaking in tongues, prophecying, understanding the mysteries of the Bible, effectively believing for miracles… If you see someone regularly operating in these gifts you might think “that guy must be really close to God. If I get close to God I'll be able to those things too.” No one would doubt this person’s commitment to God. Yet, Paul warns that if someone isn’t doing those things in love then they are not loving God. We see again that it all comes down to love. But, Paul makes it clear that loving God is not about doing spiritual things. There is a warning here that if I see these gifts operating in my life, I might delude myself into thinking that I am loving God when I am really not.
Paul also warns that I can give away everything I have and even surrender my very life for a good cause, but this doesn’t mean I truly love God. This warning certainly hits home. I’m sure there have been times when I’ve done acts of service for people but it really wasn’t done in love. It might have been with a slight grumble, or perhaps with an heir of pride – a display of how service oriented I am. According to Paul, the meat of love is patience, kindness, humility, self-sacrificing, enduring, forgiving, and being hopeful.
You can give $100 to the homeless man on the street corner and not be loving God.
You can pray for an AIDS patient to be healed and not be loving God.
You can lead a small group Bible study where everyone walks away amazed at your biblical insight and not be loving God.
What’s so striking about this chapter is that we can be involved in very religious looking activities and not be loving God. If we judge our spiritual maturity by our spiritual activity we might deceive ourselves. It’s easy to get in a spiritual routine where it all revolves around us. We have our 9am prayer time, our 12pm Bible study, and our 7pm small group meeting. We can be committed to Christianity but not be committed to God. We know we are truly walking in love with God when we begin to realize that it is not about us at all. It is not about how good serving or prophecying makes us feel. It is not about how great a sacrifice we make when we go on a missions trip. It is not about how pious we feel when we help an old lady with her garbage. Whenever we become the focus of our service, we are losing our love for God. Our love for God is to be like a marriage covenant relationship. From the moment we say “I do” we surrender a life focused on self and we commit to a life focused on Christ. Everything we do is done to Him and for His glory. We cease to be the centerpiece. When we are living for Christ, we don’t measure our love for Him by a plentitude of religious activities, but by how our entire lives – even the mundane moments – are an offering of continual worship to Him.
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