Loving God Supremely

Matthew 22:36-38 – “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.”
What is the most important duty or responsibility we have toward God? The Bible is very clear. Loving God supremely is the “first and great commandment.” With all of our heart, soul, and mind, we are to love the Lord.

It is a wonderful day in our lives when we begin to realize how much God loves us. It is this awareness of His love for us that ignites our love for Him. “We love him, because he first loved us” (I John 4:19). To love God is the natural and spontaneous response to His love for us. How could God love us so much that He would send His Son to bleed and die for our sins? To think that He would love us, in spite of our stubbornness and rebellion, captivates our hearts. We could never love Him as much as He deserves to be loved, but we fell in love with Him at the cross of Calvary. Herein is a great help to those who want to love the Lord more consistently. The more we meditate on His great sacrificial love for us, the more we will love Him.

Many things will be affected by our love for the Lord. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Our love for Christ will influence our obedience to Him. The more we love Him, the more we will want to please Him. If we love Him, we will want to serve Him. When Jesus was restoring Peter to fellowship and responsibility after Peter’s three denials, He asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Love precedes our service, and love will keep us faithful until death. God wants our service and worship to be an overflow of our love for Him. If it is not, these activities will become mechanical instead of meaningful. It is possible for a person to serve God and not love Him, but it is doubtful that a person can really love the Lord and not want to serve Him.

It would seem that our love for Him would never waver or wane, but the Church at Ephesus was rebuked in Revelation 2:4 because Jesus said they had “left thy first love.” Their love for Jesus had diminished. May we sincerely and fervently love the Lord with all our hearts.