The Greatest Command

1. Why is this a command?

1) Isn’t it obvious that we ought to love God given God’s love for man?

2) While it might be obvious, it ought not to go unstated that man has an obligation to love God.

3) Sometimes some of the simplest things go unnoticed.

4) God leaves us with no reason to assume or presume.

5) We must love Him!

6) Moses and Jesus said, “Thou shalt love . . . .” It isn’t an option.

2. Emotions can’t be commanded.

1) If we were left to presume on our own to love God, we might consider that all we need to do is be emotional about God or toward God.

2) While there is nothing wrong with having strong emotions for God, that’s not what the intention of the command is.

3) Emotions are often times the result of other behaviors.

4) The command to love God isn’t merely a result.

5) It is to be deliberate, intentional, and purposive.

6) We don’t accidentally love God.

3. In this command we have a command that outshines all other commands.

1) This is the very question that Jesus was answering.

2) If this were not a command, then could we know which one was greater?

3) It is on this command that everything else depends.

4) If we don’t love God, then why would we bother with the rest?

5) Matthew 22:40 – all the law and prophets hang on these commands.

1. We can’t do this command accidentally.

1) We must make the choice to either love God or not to love God.

2) That choice will determine the course of our lives.

3) Deuteronomy 30:19-20 “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days….”

2. When we love God, we choose God’s instruction for living.

1) Implicit in the command to love God is the command to obey God.

2) 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”

3) When we love God, we will live by His instruction and teaching.

3. Love is not passive.

1) When you tell someone, “I love you” there better be something besides words or the words are empty.

2) Love is an active verb, not a passive one.

3) We expect action from someone who claims to love.

4) 1 John 3:18 states, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

5) What are the deeds that we incorporate into our lives that show we love God?

6) What is the truth about our lives and our actions that display our love for God?

1. It must be our priority.

1) It is the greatest command. None other is above it.

2) This means that before we do anything else, we must love God first.

3) We love God . . .

a. Before each decision we make in our business.

b. Before each of our financial purchases.

c. Before the wellbeing of our own families.

4) Do we understand that some Christians in the first century were willing to allow their families to be tortured and killed before they would renounce Christ?

5) This is the kind of devotion that God expects from us.

6) Philippians 3:8 “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”

2. It must characterize our very being.

1) We need to make loving God our all.

2) That’s not to say that we don’t have jobs, families, friends, etc. God never intended Christians to be monks! (1 Corinthians 5:10)

3) It does mean, however, that in everything we do God is shown.

4) If we work in the business world, those around us should know that God permeates our lives.

5) If we are exercising at the community center, others should see God in us.

6) If we are out for the evening, God should be seen in whatever we do.

7) 1 Corinthians 10:31 “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

3. It must permeate our selves.

1) Heart

a. The heart isn’t the blood pump, but the center of man.

b. It is the seat of his intellect, emotions, conscience, and will.

c. That means that man is required to love God with

a) Every ounce of his rationality.

b) Every stir of his emotions.

c) Every judgment of his conscience.

d) And every action of his will.

d. Proverbs 23:7 says that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.

2) Soul/Spirit

a. The soul is the spiritual side of man.

b. The soul is that which will survive eternally.

c. To love God with all of our soul means . . .

a) That we give God the glory and honor He deserves from our spirit.

b) That we acknowledge that our eternal existence depends upon God.

c) That we dedicate not only our present, but our future to loving Him.

3) Might/Mind

a. Deuteronomy has the word “might.”

b. Jesus says, “mind.”

c. Consider that these two things are closely related.

d. We cannot do anything with our might without our mind.

e. Each decision we make, each action we take is predicated by a thought.

f. And all of our thoughts must be in captivity to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5).

1. When we obey the greatest command, there will be an impression made on our lives.

1) This impression is the very image of the Son of God Himself.

2) Jesus loved God perfectly; He never once sinned against God.

3) If we have this impression/image on our life, then we can be like Him.

4) Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

5) Philippians 1:21 “For to me to live is Christ….”

2. Others will then see that impression and glorify God.

1) Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

2) 2 Corinthians 2:15 (ESV) “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

3. Hopefully, an impression will then be made upon them for righteousness.