Matthew
22:34-40
The
Greatest Commandment
34 Hearing that Jesus
had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of
them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied:
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind.’[a] 38
This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is
like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] 40
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Because
loving God is the first and greatest commandment, you would
think loving God would be a priority.
So, let me ask you, what does it actually mean to love God?
When I first
met Christ at age 9 and starting growing in my understanding of what following
him looked like, I honestly don’t remember loving God the way I loved other
things in my life. For example, I
remember loving my parents and my brother.
I loved my dog, cats and horse, Midnight and I had friends that I loved,
but I did not understand loving God with my heart, soul and mind. I knew it was something I was supposed to do
and I wanted to do it, I just didn’t know how!
“Love the Lord your (he’s my God) God with all your (my) heart”
As I’ve
grown older and experienced love, I’ve gained a better understanding of loving
God. The first thing I learned was to
make my relationship personal. It’s when
you really get to know someone that you fall in love. Loving God with my all my heart has to do
with my affection for him, feelings, emotions….
“Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul”
…and loving God with all my soul has to do
with devotion. The soul literally is the
part of me (us) that defines who I am
and who you are. The essence of the biblical definition for soul means
life, personality, the inner self and our identity. It’s where we make our
decisions and choices that ultimately decide our lifestyle and behavior. Think
of the soul as the “core you”.To love the Lord with all my (your) soul means to
love Him in the way I (we) live, in the choices I (we) make and in the behavior
and lifestyle I (we) adopt.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind”
My mind is my intellect—the place
where I analyze, figure-out and plan things; the place where knowledge and
understanding are analyzed and manipulated to bring about a conclusion or
decision. I believe loving God with all
my mind means knowing fully who God is by taking the time to fill my mind with
God’s Word and being in agreement with him.
Understanding what he did for me on the cross and being certain of what
I believe and living it out demonstrates that I love him with all my mind.
How about you? Are you loving him
with your heart, soul and mind? I hope
today you’ll begin to do so.
