When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he answered by saying, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40.
What does it mean to dedicate all of your heart, soul and mind completely to something? Is Jesus asking for 95% of your devotion? 99%? 99.9%? What constitutes all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind? Is it even possible to love God so completely? The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:17b-19, “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Paul tells us that God’s love for us is so complete, complex, eternal and infinite that we cannot even begin to fathom the extent of his affection for us. We cannot escape it! God is love! Jesus said, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:12-13. God loves us to such an extreme that he did not spare his one and only son. Jesus loved with such totality that he willingly died on the cross for us.
In the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul explains the relationship between love and action, and God’s initiation of that love. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. As the Alpha, he made the first move knowing we were incapable.
The moment we come to terms with this concept on a personal level, our response is love expressed through humble repentance and thankfulness. 1 John 4:19 tells us, “We love because he first loved us.” This is what God desires. This is the transformation that makes us born again. This is turning from our former worldly values and following Jesus at all costs. Indeed, no one can have a genuine encounter with the risen Jesus Christ and remain unchanged. One cannot be half saved. It’s all or nothing and those who don’t see a change in their worldview or continue living their lives indistinguishable from secular society or their pre-Christ behavior, must ask themselves if they are truly saved.
If you cannot dedicate more than a few minutes a day to loving the Lord or attend church once a month or only a few times a year and forget about God in between those visits, you simply do not love God with the kind of entirety Jesus commands. You aren’t even close. In order to love Jesus supremely, he must be the focal point of your life. This means you must have a relationship with him that is alive and active.
Furthermore, there is a marked difference between being religious and living for God by following Christ’s example. When we dig into a similar text to Matthew 22, and the topic of loving your neighbor, Luke provides additional perspective and we see that in an attempt to trip Jesus up with words, the expert in the law asks, “’And who is my neighbor?’
In reply Jesus said: ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the inn-keeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any added expense you may have.’
Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ The expert in the law replied, ‘The one who had mercy on him.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” Luke 10:29-37.
This piece of scripture is known as “The Good Samaritan,” however, it is paramount to understanding how impactful Christ’s teaching is to recognize that in the first century, Samaritans were despised by Jews and considered anything but good. Similarly, the encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:4-42) exemplifies that God is not partisan in his love for humanity. Additionally, priests and Levites were not to touch a dead body (Leviticus 21:1-4), so in the same way that the Pharisees let their laws inhibit them from helping the needy on the Sabbath, these two believed they were serving God more by obeying their laws than by having compassion on a man in distress. Their religion served no purpose. The Samaritan man, on the other hand, had no religious inhibitions so he acted out of compassion.
Jesus, by healing on the Sabbath, cleansing lepers and placing love and compassion for his fellow man over obeying rules, broke the shackles of religious slavery and established a reputation as a radical. Yet he was the epitome of the very heart of God. Religion then and now misses the point of pleasing God. Rather than ritual and ceremony, it is love, expressed through acts of kindness that pleases God. That is why it is written, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13). Love enables us to fulfill the spirit of God’s laws despite being incapable of fulfilling the letter of his laws.
This is what James, the brother of Jesus, meant when he wrote, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.” James 2:15-17.
We are called to love God and to love our fellow man and when we love our fellow man we are loving God. The Bible says that when Jesus judges the world he will separate the people as a shepherd separates sheep from goats (Matthew 25:31-45), and those who showed compassion on the needy will be welcomed into the kingdom of heaven. “The king will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40.
Do humans even have the capacity to love God with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind? Jesus said that even if you are angry with someone, you are guilty of murder in God’s eyes (Matthew 5:21-23). Does that mean we give up and take the path of least resistance? Is it acceptable to be hearers of the word and not doers of the word?
All of man’s religiosity is useless if it doesn’t compel people into performing acts of kindness and compassion. Faith in Jesus is purposeless if it fails to bear good fruit. Paul expounded on the importance of love in the popular passage from 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. The kind of altruistic, selfless, unconditional, empathetic, complete love that leads one to lay down their life for their fellow man. Where would you rank if you were to self assess your love for God and your neighbor?
When Jesus was at the house of Simon the Pharisee, a woman began washing his feet with her tears. She had led a sinful life and was weeping and wiping his feet with her hair, while she kissed them and poured expensive perfume on them. “When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.’
Jesus answered him, ‘Simon, I have something to tell you.’ ‘Tell me teacher,’ he said. ‘Two men owed money to a certain money lender. One owed him five hundred denari, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he cancelled the debts of both. Now which one will love him more?’
Simon replied, ‘I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.’ ‘You have judged correctly,’ Jesus said.
Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, ‘Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven – for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.’” Luke 7:39-47.
This same Jesus asks that we love him with everything we’ve got. Love reigns supreme in God’s eyes and is the very essence of the Christian faith and the heart of our relationship with Christ. How much love do you have for him?
