"And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." - Mark 12:28-31
These verses are the pivotal commands of all of God’s commands. Many say they love God, but most fail to love God with their total being.
Thou Shalt Love With ALL Thy Mind
Thou Shalt Love
It is not an option, or a request. It is an imperative. It is agape love, that always does the best. It is the highest form of love. This excludes putting anything else above him.
With ALL
There is no holding back any part of our love. He wants and deserves to be number one.
With the Mind
To know God you must have knowledge of Him. How do we know God? Through His word. The Biblically ignorant doesn’t really know how to love God.
- Romans 10:3
The ignorant of God’s righteousness. They were ignorant of the importance of what God’s word taught. They, the Jews, could not truly love him, because they knew him not.
- Ephesians 4:18
The Gentile world was ignorant of God.
- John 14:15
How can we obey what we do not know?
- Hosea 4:6
God rejects those who have not knowledge of His word. We've got to know god’s word to properly love him. We Have to Seek His Word - to have knowledge.
- Acts 17:11, noble Bereans
- 2 Timothy 2:15
We must have proper understanding. If we are going to love God we have to know and understand God’s truth.
- 2 John 4
- 3 John 3
Our minds must be filled with truth. We can’t love God as we ought to if we are Biblically ignorant.
Love God with All Thy Heart
We can’t please God on pure emotion. But, there is a difference between pure emotion, and emotionalism. We must not rely on how WE feel, but rather we must have controlled emotion guided by our knowledge of the Word.
When we partake of the Lord’s supper we are to remember the death, the blood of our savior Jesus Christ. That should evoke emotion. When one is baptized there is emotional response to those who are being saved.
The Bible is filled with emotion. God gives us emotion.
- Luke 10:20
We are to rejoice in the knowledge of our salvation.
- Romans 12:15
Emotions are natural and good.
- Matthew 9:36
Jesus was moved with compassion for the lost state of those people.
- Psalms 122:1
We are to love the Lord our God with our Heart, our emotion.
Love God With All Thy Soul
Breath of life… Soul, Genesis 2:11
He made the physical body, but breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, our very soul. Soul, is psuché in the Greek.
This involves the willingness to give our whole life to the Lord. We must live a sacrificial life.
- Romans 12:1-2
Nothing more valuable than our soul.
- Matthew 16:25-26
What’s more valuable than a soul?
We are to love the Lord with All Thy Strength
We must use our abilities, our monies, and our time to serve the Lord.
- Matthew 25:13-40
Many talents are not used for the Lord. Many are never developed. God does not expect us to do more than we are capable of doing. But, he does expect us to use our abilities for His purpose.
Giving shows our true love to the Lord.
- 2 Corinthians 8:2,5
These people were deeply poor and still in their poverty gave unto the Lord.
- 2 Corinthians 9:7
The churches of Macedonia gave, they wanted to give. They gave cheerfully and liberally.
We give to the Lord our Time
We can’t make more time. It is limited in supply. But, we can give our time to show our true love for God.
- Ephesians 5:15-16
When we waste time not serving the Lord we are not redeeming the time that He gives us for His purpose.
- Psalms 90:12
We really don’t know how long we have. But, if we thought we only had 30 days, how would we spend them? Dont’ wait, we don’t know how many days we have.
We are to love our neighbors above ourselves.
- Philippians 2:4
We are to sacrifice ourselves for our brethren
- Romans 12:1
If you love your neighbor you apply the commandments, and your conduct to him int he way you’d want to be treted. Don’t mistreat, or covet that which he has.
- Matthew 7:12
- Romans 13:8
- Matthew 22:40
When we apply this command to love God to the 10 commandments. The first four are focused on loving God, the following 6 are on the love of neighbors. All the law, and the prophets hang on these two commandments.
We must make ourselves a living sacrifice unto God.
Christ has died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. You should be moved by that sacrifice for the sins of each of us. If you believe that Jesus made that sacrifice and be wiling to repent, confessing the name of Christ and be baptized having your sis washed away, you can show your love for God, and live faithfully showing His love for your fellow man.
