Loving God, Part I

"'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment." Mark 12:30

It is no secret that the commandment which Jesus called the first and the greatest is not considered to be very important today. It has been downplayed in our churches for some time. You may hear it mentioned by a preacher or teacher, but it hardly receives the emphasis given to it by Jesus Himself. Interestingly, it has therefore ceased to be meaningful to us because it has become both very familiar and very vague...

Ask any professing Christian to quote the first and greatest commandment, and with rare exceptions, he can do so. But then ask the same person if he is currently being obedient to that commandment, and the reply may come less quickly. He may look confused-- maybe surprised at the suggestion that such obedience is not automatic, or unsure of how to know whether He truly loves God. He may become uneasy-- knowing that his life does not reflect a love of God. Or he may even get outright defensive-- genuinely believing that such undivided love of God is impossible in this life, and deeply offended that you would be so judgmental to suggest that he's not doing "the best he can," or that his spiritual life is not what it should be, (when in fact, you may not have been implying anything of the sort.) Far too commonly however, the reaction seems to be one of complete disinterest-- unconcerned that he doesn't love God as He deserves and commands, and not considering it to be "that big a deal."

We don't like to admit that this isn't "the first and greatest suggestion," or the "first and greatest aspiration." It is a command! Our love-lessness toward God isn't a "shortcoming"; it is rebellion, disobedience, and sin! We ignore what God has commanded first of all: the giving of our entire beings- heart, soul, mind, and strength- to Him as a love offering. And yet we expect Him to be pleased with our church attendance, our tithing, our "good deeds," our evangelism, and so on. Beyond all our explicitly "religious" actions, we expect God to be satisfied with all our work, our socializing, and our recreation, though we may never so much as think of Him for days on end.

May we be deeply convicted by God's Spirit of our self-centered, self-driven, self-gratifying lives, moral and respectable though we may be.

"These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."
Matthew 15:8-9

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7