Tag Archives: great commandment

Love God

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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.

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Christian Love, Part 2

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When asked what is the greatest commandment in the law of God, Jesus said, “`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. And the second is like it: `You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).

How many who claim the be Christians, however, take this statement to heart? How many even have a valid concept of what “love” is, from the standpoint of Scripture? Common ideas of “love” to the world, even to many who claim to be Christians, are deeply flawed, and often they are diametrically opposite to what the Bible itself defines as love. Yet, there is nothing more important to real Christianity than both the understanding of the concept of love from a Biblical perspective, and its application as one lives his life in fulfilling these two greatest of the commandments.

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