Loving God With All Your Heart
The Lord has many Commandments, yet He spoke of a great Commandment upon which all others fall under. The greatest Commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and strength. Anything else is the making of idols and disobedience.
Mat 22:37 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.
Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
The Commandments to be kind, gentle, long-suffering, or even to forgive is not the greatest Commandment. These are important, as is every Commandment of the Lord. Many err by elevating some Commandments while ignoring others, which is idolatry. The great Commandment is putting God’s Commandments first in everything we do. We love Him above everyone and everything, which means we obey Him with all our heart, mind, and soul.
Mar 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
Mar 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Mar 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
Anything we put above any Commandment is an idol, which is a false god and angers the Lord, who is jealous over us with a godly jealousy. The first Commandment given to Moses was the same as Jesus answered, for the Lord changes not.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
When Moses returned the second time to receive the Commandments, the Lord added some perspective to the first Commandment. We are acting by taking all contrary thoughts and carnal reasonings captive to the obedience of the greatest Commandment. Standing in the Commandments destroys the altars, images, and groves [gatherings] of these false gods that are a corruption of the one true God.
Exo 34:12 Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
Exo 34:13 But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves:
Exo 34:14 For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:
Exo 34:15 Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
Exo 34:16 And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods.
Exo 34:17 Thou shalt make thee no molten gods.
The Lord commands us to diligently teach all the Commandments to one another and to bind them on our hands [our works] and keep our eyes always looking to the Commandments.
Deu 6:5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deu 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deu 6:7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
Deu 6:8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
Deu 6:9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
Inheriting eternal life is the result of loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength. If we do this, by extension, we obey all the Commandments, holding nothing back, having no idols, and the promise of salvation is made manifest. Anyone not obeying the great Commandment remains dead in their graves, no matter the outward forms of godliness. To find eternal life, we are obeying the great Commandment.
Luk 10:25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 10:26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
Luk 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
Luk 10:28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
If we obey the first and great Commandment, we are obeying all the other Commandments. Loving God with our whole heart is obeying God in every possible way.
1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments
The great Commandment is readily corrupted when carnal men, not given the Spirit, add to or take away from the Commandments, making an idol, a false god, out of their own reasoning. We are careful and keep ourselves from idols and do not eat or take to heart strange meat that is not the true Gospel.
Act 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
1Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Do not make an idol out of one Commandment and thereby disobey another. Such disobedience does not honour God and is the righteousness of the Pharisees, which is not enough to enter the kingdom of God. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, Scribes, and Sadducees, the rulers in the houses of Israel, even today, which is their hypocrisy. They claim to love God, yet their hearts are far from the Commandments; it is all for a show, an outward form of godliness.
Mat 15:7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
Mat 15:8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Mat 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
Flesh loves to hear smooth things, and thus the hard things of God to obey, such as cutting off those the Lord rejects in obedience, are reasoned away, saying it is not loving or saying we forgive all sins and do not retain them as Commanded. Here are witnesses from the new and the old.
2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
2Ti 4:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Isa 30:9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD:
Isa 30:10 Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:
Loving God with all our heart includes obeying Commandments to sever, to cut off, those in our lives who are fornicating and thus defile us. As the Lord’s people, we are set apart and holy and touch not the unclean things. These Commandments are not love to the flesh but they are in God’s eyes and we are doing them when required.
1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
Many cease following Christ and are turned away into deception over these Commandments. False prophets and deceivers deceive many because they have a form of godliness, yet they corrupt the Commandments in seeking fleshly rewards and the esteem of men. Do not be deceived and run from such corruption, as it can only be a snare that can take away your crown. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom of God. Beware any teaching that takes away from the greatest Commandment to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul.
Jud 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
The second Commandment is likened unto the first Commandment, and we plan to address it in its own short study.
Mar 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
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