“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.” -Matthew 22:36-38.
In spite of all Jesus did for mankind through His death on the cross, this first and great commandment is still in effect for us today, and I dare say that now, because of Jesus, we ought to be all the more inclined to fulfill it. Very often this first commandment becomes diminished as we use it together with the following verse, Matthew 22:39;
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.”
Today it keeps being emphasized how much God loves us, but little is said of returning His love-we only take it from Him. But before going further into that topic, I want to point out a common error I've witnessed from the professing church, which occurs when we include the next commandment, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus includes this 2nd commandment here so that we will never forget that our love for God cannot be separated from how we treat others, and that we must not, “become so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.” In I John 4:20 we are told that no man can love God whom he has NOT seen, and not love his neighbor whom he has seen.
The error I see happening is that when these verses are used together, the typical emphasis is on the 2nd, not the first command-and the priorities become reversed. Churches today have a focus on material services for the public which often EXCLUDES any presentation of the gospel; the person's separation from God by his/her sins, and the need to repent & be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. To fulfill the 2nd command, the first must be in place in our lives. If we really loved our neighbors, we would tell them of their need for salvation, and seek to turn them from Hell.
Moving on from there, I would tell the sincere but struggling believer that the more we grow in our love for Jesus, the stronger we become against sin. We need this good gift from God (James 1:17), and must pray that He will increase it, because it is not naturally within us;
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” -Romans 7:18.
We cannot avoid all temptations, brethren. Sometimes we may vex ourselves by trying to figure out a strategy to overcome many and varied points of struggling. We also CANNOT gain the victory in our own efforts, but need to avail ourselves of all the advantages God gives us. First, take comfort in knowing that our righteousness is of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and is the gift of God that we never earn (Ephesians 2:8,9). Second, Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to guide & strengthen us, and to even intercede for us in prayer (Romans 8:26,27). And third, which is the focus of this blog, is that the more we love Jesus the more our fleshly temptations will lose their grip on us! Think how hard it would be to consider every possible point of stumbling, and then to cunningly devise ways in which to overcome! There is a simplicity in just loving God through Jesus more & more, so that our hearts are transformed, and we are all the more inclined toward righteousness.
“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” -John 14:21.
“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” -I John 5:3,4.
If we are to truly love Jesus, we have to love Him for who He is according to scripture. Then we must not only accept who He is, but all that He teaches us, and what He tells us about our status with Him. Today most have re-created Jesus into an image they find more pleasing, and appoint teachers that will promote the views they favor (2 Timothy 4:3,4). These views teach that Jesus loves all, and all loved Him during His fleshly time on earth. They tell us that we are all children of God already, sin is not serious to keep us from Him, and He is loaded with gifts for us that He wants to share! Things like money, health, popularity, jobs, cars, and homes.
But the scriptures tell us that we are lost sinners in need of salvation, which we can only find through Jesus. We are by nature children of God's wrath, and need adoption by His grace (Galatians 4:5).We are not to love the things of this world, and God discourages being rich (I Timothy 6:6-11), but promises to supply all our needs (Matthew 6:33, Philippians 4:19). We must have the correct view of God and accept what He declares our status to be with Him, or we can never love Him as we need to. We must remember that there is no good in us prior to salvation (Romans 3:10-12), and that we did not love God first, but He loved us, through Jesus;
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” -Romans 5:8.
“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” -I John 4:10.
So the big question to be answered is, how do we increase our love for God? As I said before, we must pray-pray-pray for this, because it is not natural in our flesh. Even so, it will all begin with our repentance. Only too often those that claim to be Christian never thought they were bad enough to need any significant forgiveness, and real repentance is lacking. Remember that Jesus said that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). In other words, if a person won't recognize that they are a sinner separated from God, they cannot repent. ALL have sinned, and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
And so to increase in love for God, we should take time thanking Him for taking care of us so well, and for the tremendous price Jesus paid to wash away our sins. Consider this example;
“There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” -Luke 7:41-47. Bold type added; our sins drove Jesus to the cross.
There are several other things I'd like to note, as we seek to love God and Jesus more. After we pray for this love increase, we must A) be sure to keep studying God's Word. As shown in John 14:21, when we love Jesus we will keep His words; we need to read the Bible for this! For example, Jesus told Peter that if he loved Him he would feed His sheep (Christians) in John 21:15-17. Today I have witnessed many church leaders insisting that the flock do a better job of feeding them! Guess where the love for God isn't? B) We should always seek to know God's will, follow it, and pray for Him to bring about its fulfillment (I John 5:14,15). C) When we do God's will, things may not always turn out visibly well for us; but when we love Jesus as we should, we will still be glad to serve Him, even if we are demeaned in men's eyes (Luke 17:10). D) We should seek the Lordship of Jesus in our daily lives. What I see in the church of these Last Days, is that while people recognize their need to be saved, they DO NOT want to give up control of their lives-they will not make Jesus their Lord, and yet they MUST.
“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” -Luke 9:23,24.
“So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.” -Luke 14:33.
Do we really love Jesus with all of our being? Yes, we could all do better. But have we loved Him for saving us from Hell, or only for what we thought He would give us here on earth? We need to answer this question. But there is a power when we have that proper love & affection; a power God gives us to overcome, and glorify Him all the more. I urge you to seek after the Lord to love Him more, and honestly, and devoutly. Let us not be as the nine lepers who took healing from Jesus, and were on their way, but as the Samaritan that returned with love for his God.
"And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger." -Luke 17:17,18.
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