First things first

Jonathon Edwards says that God is most glorified when His people are most delighted in Him. The theology behind this is that God alone is worthy of our greatest delight. He knows it, and when we know it, we cannot help but obey the greatest commandment.

This commandment is repeated throughout Scripture. In the New Testament, Jesus was approached by a scribe who wanted to know which commandment was the most important. In those days, they decided that the laws God had given needed to be “protected” from misinterpretation and abuse, so they wrote hundreds of other laws. This scribe may have been confused by all that, or perhaps he was trying to stump Jesus. Regardless of his motives, Jesus answered with this:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. (Mark 12:30)

I’m trying to picture what that kind of love looks like. We use ‘love’ for other desires and even inanimate objects. People ‘love’ pizza and roses and new lawn furniture, but this isn’t about that kind of love. It is about a relationship, an affection of the soul.

Other words are used to express feelings for God, such as fear. This is appropriate (in the sense of awe and respect) but this emotional response has limits and puts me somewhat at a distance from Him.

Trust, hope, and other words also express what goes on in my heart when I am rightly related to God, yet there is some sense of self associated with these words. By hoping in Him and trusting Him, I am thinking also of my own well-being. If that becomes my only reason for trusting God, then it is quite selfish.

But love is not like that. This word covers every other emotion and response. It carries a sense of being spontaneous in wanting to please God. Love for Him motivates loyalty and obedience. It is a personal word. It is about loving someone else and is the most unselfish of all affections. When people are ‘in love’ they focus on the one they love, thinking of little else. This other person occupies their minds and most of their energy. Love for God should be like that, only more so.

When parents love a child, they will sacrifice time, energy, and resources to do what they think best for that child. They will protect and guard them, adore them and even when the child needs discipline, that love remains deep in their hearts. Love for God is like that too, even though God is the one who disciplines and protects.

Jesus used various words to describe how I should love God with all my powers. It should be a sincere love, fervent and intense, intelligent and not blind or ignorant of Him, and energetic. That is, I should love Him with all my ability and with the whole energy of my being.

As I think about this, I realize that even loving God can turn into a selfish motive. When I am loving God, I cannot be fearful, hateful, joyless, or harsh. Love puts me in a pleasant and pleasing state. I am nicer to be around, fully interested in spiritual matters, but also in the lives of others (for that is what the love of God is like). Frankly put, all of that feels good.

But here is the rub. As soon as I turn my focus from loving God with all that I am to thinking more about how that feels, I have stopped giving Him all my affections. To love God excludes this self-focus. This fits totally with Jesus’ words about the way being narrow. It does not take much to fall away from obedience to this first and greatest commandment. When I take my eyes off Him and put them on myself, for whatever reason, I have stepped off that narrow way.

Today I’m nervous about beginning to teach again at Family Bible School in our church. My attention has been on all sorts of ‘what ifs’ and all sorts of fears. When I asked God to speak to me this morning, He gave me this verse and plainly puts these thoughts in my mind: “This is not about you. Turn your attention and affection where it belongs. You cannot obey the command to love others, teach or do anything well unless you first love Me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Do it. I will help you.”