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"The
most important one," answered Jesus, "is
this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.' - Mark 12:29-30 (NIV)
I've heard
people say that "serving God is too difficult. He has too many
rules to follow.." Indeed, all through the Bible, God gives us
instruction through His 10 Commandments, the expanded Law in
Leviticus and Deuteronomy, the books of the Prophets, and the direct
teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. There are thousands of individual
commands in scripture which are given to us to teach us, convict us,
rebuke us, reproof us, and lead us to repentance. Looking at this
great To Do and To Don't list, it seems a little overwhelming to us
who want to please God and be love, light, and salt to our world. |
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How
can
we hope to know all of God's commandments? |
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If you've
ever asked that question, you are not alone. Most new believers are
overwhelmed with trying to learn all they can so that they can please
God. The Bible is a big, thick book and it takes a lifetime to study
it all. But that's ok. Jesus said if you can do just two things, you
will automatically do everything God wants you to do. Today we're
going to look at what Jesus called the greatest commandment of all.
Today I'm going to challenge you to: |
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Love
the Lord your God. |
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Heavenly
Father, thank you for Your love and for your kindness. Thank you
Lord, for this place and this time that we can commit to seeking Your
active presence in our lives, and Your instruction through Your
Spirit and your word. Lord help us, to hear the message you have for
us today. We give you this time in Jesus' name, for Your honor and
glory. Amen. |
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The
commandments of God and the rules of men |
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Starting
with the 10 Commandments and all the way through the Old Testament,
the Pharissees and Scribes, the religious leaders of Jesus' day, made
a list of more than 500 rules and regulations based around keeping
God's instructions.
They had
laws pertaining to the Sabbath - what you can do and what you can't
do on the Sabbath. They had civil laws pertaining to relations
between people - handling disagreements, theft, murder, etc.
They had
moral laws of conduct and rules for defining each act. They had
family laws - how the family should operate, rules for courtship and
marriage, grounds and procedures for divorce, and rules for mourning
the dead.
They had
dietary laws - what you could eat and drink, when, where, and how you
should prepare food.
They turned
God's commands into a complex system of life that only they could
keep track of. They took the commandments God wanted written on their
hearts, and codified them into a bunch of rules in a book. They were
diligent to follow the letter of the law, but forgot the spirit of
the law - why God gave them the commandments in the first place.
In Matthew
15:7-9 Jesus said to them,
You
hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
"'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are
far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules
taught by men.'" (NIV) |
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Following
rules blindly does not please God. |
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All through
Jesus' ministry, He taught that it's not the stuff we do that pleases
God, our motivations that cause us to what we do. It's not our
sacrifices, but our mercy toward others, not our gifts, but our
desire to honor God that matters to God.
In the
temple, the Pharisees, Saduccees, and Herodians tried to trap Jesus
in His words, by asking Him controversial questions in front of the
crowds. With every answer, our Lord stopped them in their tracks,
exposing their ignorance of the things of God.
In Mark
12:28-34, we read of a scribe who broke ranks with the others, asking
Jesus a question because he really wanted to hear what Jesus had to
say. It says:
One of
the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that
Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?" Mark 12:28-29 (NIV)
Remember
that the religious leaders and teachers had over 500 rules regarding
the commandments of God. It was a hard thing to try and learn and
keep them all. He asked Jesus a question that he personally had to
wrestle with every day, and, being a teacher of the law, was
undoubtedly asked by his students from time to time. |
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Where
do we start? |
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With so
many rules and regulations regarding the commandments of God, it
seems reasonable to want to learn the most important ones first. We
start by learning the most important commandment. Once we understand
the commandment, the rules regarding that commandment should be
easier to remember and once we know and can apply those, we can learn
the rest. Are there any commandments that God places in order of
preference before all the others? If so, what are they?
"The
most important one," answered Jesus, "is
this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your
neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
- Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) |
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All
of the law of God, all the oracles
of the prophets, all of the teaching of the Bible is summarized in
these two commanments. |
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If we
love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength
we will have no other gods before Him. We will make no idols and
worship them. We will not take His name in vain. We will keep the
Sabbath. We will want to know Him and we'll desire to please Him in
all that we do.
If we love
our neighbors as ourselves (we'll talk about that one next week) we
will take care of our families. We will honor our parents. We will
not steal. We will not kill. We will not lie. We will not commit
adultery. We will not desire other people's stuff. We will also love
our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. We will look after
orphans and widows in their distress. We'll restore our fallen
brothers and sisters gently. We'll speak the truth in love, and we'll
keep ourselves from being polluted by the world.
This week I
want to spend our time looking at "the most important" commandment. |
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Love
the Lord
your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all
your mind, and with all your strength. |
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Jesus,
quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5, said that we have one God, the Lord, and
we must love Him with all our heart, all of our soul, all of our mind
and all of our strength. What was He talking about? He was talking
about taking our relationship with Almighty God seriously, to
actively seek to know Him and understand His ways, to believe in Him,
to let our belief become faith which motivates us, and to act on our
faith, and to do all these things will all that we have in us.
Let's take
a closer look at the commandment word by word. First, let's love,
then love The Lord our God, then love the Lord our God with all, and
then with at all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. |
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We
must love |
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The verb
used here for love in the Greek is agapao, and is the
strongest kind of love. Agape love is more than brotherly affection,
more than kindness, more than intimate romantic love. Agape love is
an "all-inclusive, active affectionate benevolence" towards
another and involves a conscious decision we make to indefinitely
involve our lives with another person, to always seek what is in
their interest or what would please them, without regard for what the
person does for us in return, their state of mind, or what they've
done in the past.
The best
definition of agape love is in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is
patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (NIV)
Because
agape involves decisions and desire and knowledge and belief and
action, the only way to express agape love to someone is to use all
of the heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Whenever
Jesus speaks about love, He always uses this form. When He says to
love someone, He means make a decision to love that person, no matter what. |
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We
must love the Lord our God. |
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The Greek
phrase is Kurion ton Theon, literally, "The (only)
Supreme God." This form is (as far as I know) always translated
as "the Lord (your) God." He is Yahweh, the Self-Existent
One, the great I AM and there is no one else. He is the almighty, all
powerful, sovereign, creator of the Universe, and He loves you, and
wants to be in an intimate, personal agape love relationship with
you. He loved you enough to send Jesus to die for your sins, to pay
the debt you owed, just to give you the chance to enter into this relationship. |
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We
need to love
the Lord our God with all. |
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We need to
love the Lord our God, with all. All here is holos. It means
whole, complete, altogether. It implies using all of our resources
toward a common goal. When we love the Lord with all, it means all.
"Not when I feel up to it I'll try," or "I'll do my
devotional between the Simpsons and Hard Copy" or "God's
been good to me this week, I can spare a buck to put in the offering
plate." It means He is the reason we do what we do, and our
desire is to know Him, be with Him, and please Him in everything we do. |
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We
need to love
the Lord our God with all what? |
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Collectively,
the heart, soul, mind, and strength speak of the attributes of a
person. A person knows something, believes something, feels
something, and acts based on what he knows, feels and believes. These
are separate areas of a person's being, and Jesus is telling us that
our love for God needs to include all aspects of our being.
The mind
remembers God's faithfulness, contemplates God and His word, learns
the scriptures, and seeks understanding about how He wants us to
live. The heart believes what God has told us, and has shown us in
His faithfulness and makes decisions based on that belief. Knowledge
becomes belief, which becomes faith, which motivates us. The strength
is our power to act based on our knowledge, belief, and faith, and
motivations. If we are motivated to pray, or to speak, or to worship,
or to help the needy, we do so with a measure of our strength. The
soul is the innermost part of us. The soul reaps the consequences of
our actions. It mourns, it grieves, it rejoices, it sings. The soul
is saved or lost by our actions motivated by faith, powered by
belief, fueled by knowledge.
The mind is
what you know; the heart is what you believe; the soul is what you
feel; and the strength is what you do. The mind is given facts. The
heart makes decisions based on the facts. The strength acts on the
decisions. The soul reaps what is sown.
Jesus is
saying with all our mind we should seek God, we should try to know
Him, and meditate on His words. With all of our hearts we should
desire to be with the Lord, to make a choice to set our affections on
Him, to hold on to His promises and believe His truth, and let the
truth motivate us to action. With all our strength we should put our
faith into practice, to pursue His righteousness with all that we
have in us. With all of our soul we seek to enjoy His presence, to
commune with God, to worship Him, to reach out to Him with the
innermost part of us, and to rejoice with Him in our salvation. |
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We
must love
the Lord with all our hearts. |
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The word
heart used here in the Greek is kardia. Throughout the New
Testament, kardia is used to describe the seat of our
affections, the center of our complex being. In our hearts knowledge
becomes belief, belief becomes faith, and faith becomes motivation.
Here's what the Bible says about the heart.
The heart
is where God poured out His love for us. In Romans 5:5 Paul says,
And hope
does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our
hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (NIV)
The heart
is where the Holy Spirit resides. In 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, Paul says,
Now it
is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed
us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts
as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (NIV)
In
Galatians 4:6, Paul says
Because
you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the
Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father." (NIV)
The heart
is where God reveals Himself to us. In 2 Corinthians 4:6, Paul says,
For God,
who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light
shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ. (NIV)
The heart
is where God looks to know what we need. In Romans 8:27 he says
And he
who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. (NIV)
The heart
prompts obedience - In Romans 6:17 Paul says
But
thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you
wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were
entrusted (NIV)
The heart
stores hidden things. In 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, Paul says
But if
an unbeliever or someone who does not understand comes in while
everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a
sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will
be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming,
"God is really among you!" (NIV)
The heart
is where we believe. In Romans 10:10 Paul says
For it
is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you confess and are saved. (NIV)
The heart
controls the mouth. As Jesus said in Luke 6:45,
The good
man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and
the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his
heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks. (NIV)
The heart
believes what God has told us, and has shown us in His faithfulness
and makes decisions based on that belief. Knowledge becomes belief,
which becomes faith, which motivates us. |
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We
need to love the Lord with all our souls. |
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The word
for soul here is psuche, and is used to describe the innermost
self, the part of us that makes us alive, and the part of us that can
never die. Psuche is translated as life, breath, soul, heart,
or mind, depending on use.
The* soul
is the innermost part of us. The soul reaps the consequences of our
actions. It mourns, it grieves, it rejoices, it sings. The soul is
saved or lost by our actions motivated by faith, powered by belief,
fueled by knowledge. With all of our soul we seek to enjoy His
presence, to commune with God, to worship Him, to reach out to Him
with the innermost part of us, and to rejoice with Him in our salvation.
The soul is
the eternal part of us that survives after the body dies. In Matthew
10:28, Jesus said,
Do
not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
(NIV)
And in
Matthew 16:25-26,
For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his
life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains
the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in
exchange for his soul? (NIV)
The soul is
the center of our emotions, where we feel deepest sadness or
unspeakable joy In Matthew 26:38, Jesus' soul was troubled as he
prayed and waited for His betrayer.
Then he
said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with
sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me."
(NIV)
Psuche
is equivalent to the Hebrew word nephesh, the word for soul in
Deuteronomy 6:4.
Nephesh is used in the Old Testament to express the deep
emotional feelings centered in the soul.
The Psalm
35:9, the psalmist writes,
Then my
soul will rejoice in the LORD and delight in his salvation. (NIV)
And again
in Psalm 42:5,
Why are
you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in
God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
The soul
yearns for communion with God. In Psalm 42:2, the psalmist writes
My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (NIV)
And in
Psalm 130:6 he says
My soul
waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than
watchmen wait for the morning. (NIV)
Our deepest
prayers come from our soul. In 1Sam 1:15, Hannah is mistaken for
being drunk because of her fervent prayer,
"Not
so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply
troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my
soul to the LORD. (NIV)
The soul is
wronged by sin. In 1 Peter 2:11, Peter says,
Dear
friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain
from sinful desires, which war against your soul. (NIV)
The soul is
purified by obeying the truth. In 1 Peter 1:22, Peter says,
Now that
you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have
sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the
heart. (NIV)
The soul is
the part of you that is saved or lost. In 1 Pet 1:8-9, Peter exhorts,
Though
you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see
him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and
glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the
salvation of your souls. (NIV) |
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We
must love the Lord with all our minds. |
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This is the
call of Jesus to put our heads into our worship, to think about what
we're doing. With our minds we remember His faithfulness to us,
expect His future faithfulness, search the scriptures, and meditate
on His words. In our minds, the information we receive through our
senses and experiences becomes knowledge and understanding, the fuel
that powers belief. The Greek word dianoias is used here, and
is translated elsewhere in the New Testament as mind, imagination,
and understanding. It means deep thought, contemplation, the
meaningful exercise of our minds. It's more than intellectual ascent,
or superficial thought. Our love for the Lord must not be blind
devotion. He has given us ample reasons to love Him.
Jesus came
to give us understanding. In I John 5:20, John states,
We know
also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so
that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--
even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (NIV)
The author
of Hebrews, in 8:10 says,
This is
the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,
declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them
on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. (NIV)
Sin
corrupts our minds. When we engage in sin, we fill our heads with the
lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Our
imaginations, contemplations, and deep thoughts revolve around the
things we fill our heads with, separating us from God.
Paul says,
in Colosians 1:21,
Once you
were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of
your evil behavior. (NIV)
And in
Ephesians 4:18,
They are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of
their hearts. (NIV)
We need to
set our minds on God. We need to clean out the junk that is in our
minds by focusing our deep thoughts on God and His word. We need to
remind ourselves of God's promises and His faithfulness, and meditate
on His word to make our minds fruitful.
In 2 Peter
3:1, Peter says,
Dear
friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of
them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. (NIV)
And in 1
Peter 1:13,
Therefore,
prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope
fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. (NIV)
In Romans
12:2, Paul adds,
Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God's will is-- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
In Joshua
1:8, it says,
Do not
let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day
and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful. (NIV) |
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We
need to love the Lord with all
our strength. |
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The word
Jesus used here is ischus, and is translated as ability,
might, power, or mighty power. The Hebrew word is me'od, and
is used in
the Old Testament as strength, but also as a modifier: very, more,
exceedingly, greatly, etc. When used together with a quantity or
attribute it sort of means more than you can measure, like Jacob
becoming exceedingly prosperous (Genesis 30:43) It adds oomph to
whatever you're talking about. Jesus is telling us to love the Lord
with all our oomph.
The
strength we have, we get from God. And He has a lot of strength to
give us. If we need more strength to do something we can get it from
God, who has an endless supply. In Ephesians 6:10, Paul says
Finally,
be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. (NIV)
In 1 Pet
4:11, Peter tells us
If
anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.
If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so
that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be
the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (NIV)
Strength is
what we do. Love motivates us to act, to strive, to seek a personal,
intimate relationship with God. It means we put what we believe into
motion. It means we pray fervently, we study diligently, we give
generously, we help selflessly. It means we take what He's told us
and put it into practice. Loving with all our strength means we show
Him He matters to us by following His instructions.
In John
14:15, Jesus said,
"If
you love me, you will obey what I command. (NIV)
In I John
2:3-6, John adds,
We know
that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who
says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a
liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word,
God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are
in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. (NIV)
With all
our strength we should put our faith into practice, to pursue His
righteousness with all that we have in us. |
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We
need to put it all together |
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To really
love the Lord, our God, and fulfill His greatest commandment to us,
we need to put our whole being into it. We need to put our mind in
and search out His riches, and learn His truths. We need to put our
heart in and let His love transform us, combining His truth and love
into faith and faith into motivation and motivation into commitment
to His ways. We need to put our strength in and use the oomph He
provides us with to act as faith motivates us. We
need to put our soul into it and pour out to God our innermost
emotions, our hopes, our fears, our joy, our apprehension, our
elation, and our sorrow. We need to let God into our whole being, and
commit to God with all that we have in us.
Psalm
119:27-34 says it best:
Let me
understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on
your wonders. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according
to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through
your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your
laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to
shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart
free. Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them
to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey
it with all my heart. |
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Love
the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your mind, and with all your strength. |
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Let's pray:
Jesus,
thank you, for your awesome word and for your awesome patience with
us. Lord, we haven't committed all that we have toward loving you,
and we want to. Help us to love you, gracious Lord, with all that we
have. Fill us with your love, that we may grow closer to you, and
transform us so that we may fulfill all of your commandments without
having to remember rules. Give us a heart to please you. We ask these
things in the name of Jesus, whom we love. And everybody said... Amen. |
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Rev.Michael
Packard
Copyright
1999 Practically Righteous Ministries - All Rights Reserved |
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