Jesus was asked the question, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36). Jesus answer, as recorded in Matthew 22:37-38, was, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.”
We see then that the first and greatest requirement for a Christian is that we love God. And not just that we love God, but that we love him totally, with all our heart, mind and being. This means that we must love God above anything or anyone else. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” [Matthew 10:37; cf. similar scripture in Luke 14:26; the Greek word μισεω (miseō) in this context does not mean to hate but means to love less by comparison (Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance)].
But how do you love God? Have you ever thought about it? I hope so. It is something we should give a great deal of thought and attention to. Let’s examine this subject of loving God and some specific ways we can go about fulfilling this greatest of all commandments.
1. Choose To Love God
Love toward God does not come naturally. It is a matter of will and choice. In order to fulfill God’s commandment to love him we must make a conscious choice to do just that. The word translated love in Matthew 22:37 is αγαπαω (agapaō). It is a particular kind of love, most generally in the New Testament a kind of love that is of divine origin.
William Barclay in his book New Testament Words says, “Agapē [noun form of agapaō] has to do with the mind: it is not simply an emotion which arises unbidden in our hearts; it is a principle by which we deliberately live. Agapē has supremely to do with the will. It is a conquest, a victory, and achievement” (p. 21). Barclay further describes the meaning of agapē as “A deliberate conviction of the mind issuing in a deliberate policy of this life; it is a deliberate achievement and conquest and victory of the will” (New Testament Words, p. 22).
It is true there may be emotional aspects of godly love, but these are secondary, not primary. Godly love, agapē, does not occur accidentally, it is something you choose to do. Joshua reminded his Israelite brethren, “But take careful heed to do the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to keep His commandments, to hold fast to Him, and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Joshua 22:5).
And again, “Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God” (Joshua 23:11). In both of these verses αγαπαω (agapaō) appears in the Septuagint where “love” appears in the English translation. These verses emphasize that loving God is something we must choose to do and that it requires deliberate effort and an exercise of will to accomplish.
Love is how you live. As Barclay said, love “is a principle by which we deliberately live.” As Vine’s says, “Love can be known only from the actions it prompts” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary, “Love”). Love is rooted in the mind, but it’s manifested by how you act, by how you behave.
So we must choose to love God and exercise our will on a continuing basis to do so. Our love toward God is not manifested primarily in our feelings or pretensions, but in our deeds – in how we live our lives. We must also recognize that while loving God requires exercising our own will, it also is not something we can accomplish without help. We have to do our part, but genuine love of the kind God requires is a gift that comes from him as we seek and struggle to develop it (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22). So we also have to go to God and seek his love, ask him to help us have the love for him that he requires. And this brings us to the second point.
2. Seek and Know God
How can you love God if you don’t know who God is and what he is like? The more you know about God the more possible it becomes to love him. God’s word promises that if we seek God with our whole heart we will find him (2 Chronicles 15:2; Isaiah 55:5-7; Jeremiah 29:13). As we diligently seek God and begin to develop a relationship with him we can come to the point of rejoicing in knowing God. “Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You” (Psalm 40:16).
Who is God, really? God is among other things the Eternal Creator, ruler of all creation, the giver of life and of every blessing, perfect in righteousness, the Eternal judge, perfect in knowledge and wisdom, the Divine Father, our savior and redeemer. Scripture tells us we can know God in part by his creation, by the wonders he has done. We can reflect on his creation and get to know his works by studying the Scriptures. The Scriptures tell us also of God’s holiness, his righteousness, his mercy, and many other attributes of his character.
Israel was told, “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9). As we come to know God we can know that he is indeed God and that there are specific rewards for those who love him.
One of the most important things we can come to know about God is that God is love, that is, love is such an essential part of God’s nature that in a sense love defines who he is, and certainly love finds its fullest expression in God. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:8-9). By coming to know God’s love we can imitate it. God sent Jesus Christ, his Son, into the world to teach us about his love and set an example of Divine love in action. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 John 3:16).
We love God in part by imitating his example in loving others. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). “We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:19-21).
We need to pay a lot of attention to God’s love, and all the various manifestations of his love. Study it, meditate on it, and imitate it. Seeking and knowing God will help us love him, and we come to know God in part by imitating his love.
3. Have Faith in God
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Without faith you cannot please God, in part because without faith it’s impossible to have love for God.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians, and note how faith is linked with knowing and exhibiting the love of Christ, “…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:17-19).
Faith essentially means belief. The Greek word for faith, πιστις [pistis], means belief, a firm persuasion, a conviction. Godly faith is believing God, and believing in God. Not only believing that God exists, but going beyond that to believing in who and what God is, and surrendering to him in faithful obedience. Genuine faith implies being convinced that God’s way and will is right even when it seems difficult or impossible.
God’s kingdom is reserved for those who come to genuinely love God, and who demonstrate their love by enduring in faith (James 1:12; 2:5).
Our faith is tested by the trials of life, which loving God will help us endure, as faith and love work together hand in hand. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:6-8).
Faith enables us to know, despite the difficulties we face in life, what Paul knew when he wrote, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).
4. Obey and Serve God
Many who profess to love God devise every way conceivable of arguing around, minimizing and outright rejecting the absolute necessity of obeying God’s commandments. Yet, God’s word tells us very plainly in numerous places that loving God not only requires obeying his commandments, but that it is defined by obeying God’s commandments. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome“ (1 John 5:2-3).
God asked the Israelites, “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). If God required the carnal Israelites to keep his commandments by what logic would he demand less of those who have the gift of his Spirit? Actually, God’s Spirit is given only to those who obey him (Acts 5:32; the latter part of this verse is better translated in the Concordant version: “…the holy spirit which God gives to those yielding to [i.e., obeying] Him.”; cf. Proverbs 1:23).
Those who teach lawlessness do not really love God, for the test of our love is in keeping the commandments of God. Notice how love is tied together with obedience in the following: “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, `Let us go after other gods’–which you have not known–and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:1-4).
And it’s no different under the New Covenant, contrary to common belief, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:3-5).
Jesus’ teachings make plain the need to keep the commandments. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him” (John 14:21). “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10).
Loving God requires keeping the commandments, but it also requires going beyond the minimum requirements of the law and serving God wholeheartedly. “So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do’ ” (Luke 17:10).
Loving God requires giving to others as God himself is a giving God. “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me’” (Matthew 25:37-40).
When you go out of your way to serve God by serving others, God regards that as a sacrifice pleasing to him. “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:16).
Loving God requires self-sacrifice, being willing to suffer if necessary out of love for God and his way of life. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me’“ (Matthew 16:24).
We love God by sacrificing ourselves to his service, rejecting the world and allowing God to transform our minds into the likeness of his mind imbued with his Divine and perfect character. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2).
5. Honor, Praise and Thank God
We love God in part as we worship him, giving him honor, praise and thanks. To honor means to highly esteem, pay tribute to.
We honor God in part with our tithes and offerings.“Honor the Lord with your possessions, And with the firstfruits of all your increase” (Proverbs 3:9).
We honor God by keeping the Sabbath day holy. “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the Lord honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Isaiah 58:13-14).
We see how God is honored and praised by the heavenly host in the book of Revelation: “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created'” (Revelation 4:9-11).
Paul wrote to Timothy, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17).
The Psalms are full of praise toward God. One of the psalmists wrote, for example, “I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And I will glorify Your name forevermore” (Psalm 86:12). And David wrote, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord!” (1 Chronicles 16:8-10).
Paul admonished us to be, “… giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20).
We should never forget all the blessings and benefits that God gives us, including life itself, “Therefore by Him Jesus let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).
If we genuinely and truly love God we should express our love by expressing honor toward him and liberally praising and thanking him. And as we practice doing these things it will help us to love God even more, because we’ll be reminded of all those things God has done that merits our honor, praise and thanks towards him.
Let’s strive with all diligence to keep the first and greatest commandment of all, to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, by choosing to love him, by seeking and knowing him, by having faith in him, by obeying and serving him, and by honoring, praising and thanking him.
Copyright © 2025 by Rod Reynolds
Unless otherwise noted Scripture taken from the New King James VersionTM
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.
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