Loving God : The First Commandment

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. {Matthew 22:37-38}

This is the first and great commandment,

as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. {John 15:9}

I. THE CALL TO BE JOINED TO JESUS IN LOVE

a) The Holy Spirit’s first agenda is to establish the first commandment in the Church. 

b) God's eternal purpose for creation included providing a loving family for Himself that includes an eternal companion for His Son—a Bride (the Church).

c) We must love God on His terms. A core issue today in the Church is how we define love.

II. THE FIRST AND GREAT COMMANDMENT

a) The First: Jesus did not call this the first option, but the first command.

b) The Great: Cultivating love for Jesus has the greatest impact on God’s heart and our heart.

III. LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR HEART

a) Love God with all our heart: We are to engage our emotions in our love for God instead of being content with dutiful service while living disengaged from our relationship with Him.

b) We can “set” our love or affections on anything that we choose. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we set ourselves to pursue.

c) David made a choice to set his heart to love God. He determined to love God. I will love You, O LORD, my strength. (Psalm 18:1)

IV. LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR MIND

a) Love God with all our mind: We fill our mind with that which inspires love for God instead of that which diminishes it.

b) We love God with our mind by taking the time to fill our mind with the Word so that we come into agreement with the truth about Him.

V. LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR STRENGTH

a) Love God with all our strength: We are to love God with our natural resources (time, money, energy, talents, words, and influence).

b) God cares about the love we show Him when we invest our strength into our relationship with Him and in helping others to love Him. 

VI. LOVE GOD WITH ALL OUR SOUL

a) Love God with all our soul: We realign our identity to be based on our relationship with God instead of on our accomplishments and the recognition we receive.

b) When we get our identity from our accomplishments and recognition, we end up in an emotional storm of preoccupation with vanity and pride; we most naturally see our accomplishments as very small and unimportant, causing us to feel rejected and neglected by people.

c) We are to define our primary success in life as being those who are loved by God and who love God. 

d) Our identity must be established upon being loved by God and in loving Him in response.

e) The reach of our heart to love Him moves Him.