Have you ever wondered what God desires most from us? Many religions teach that you must do good works to please God. If you are a Christian, he expects it. After all, James teaches us that faith without works is dead. Others teach that you must be baptized to please God, and I’m sure if you are a Christian it does please Him. However, we know that these are not the most important actions to God. First, they are not the means of salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, we can’t buy it or earn it. Salvation is a free gift. However, once we are saved there is an attribute that God says is first. So, if those acts of obedience are not the most important to God, what is?
James 2:20 “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?”
I believe Jesus answers that question in Mark 12:29-31. In Mark chapter 12, Jesus had been teaching them in parables. Parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning. We might call them object lessons that teach a spiritual truth. In verse 28, one of the scribes asks Jesus what was the first, or most important, commandment of all of them. Jesus’s answer was simple. We are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Second to that was to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Mark 12:28-31 “And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 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. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
Why is loving God and others first and second? I think the answer to that is easy. When you love someone with everything in you, you desire to please that person. When we love God supremely obeying Him will be paramount in our lives. John 14:15 teaches us that love equals obedience. In I John 5:2-3 we learn that keeping God’s commands will not be grievous to us when they are done out of love.
John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
I John 5:2-3 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”
We can say we love God all day long. We can scream it from the rooftops, but only our obedience to Him will give validity to our declaration of love. When we put love for God first and others second it will cover all other problems. We will not lie, cheat, steal, or neglect those in need. Our love will cause us to act on our neighbors’ behalf. We will not neglect church attendance, tithing, praying, or study of the word. These are indications of our love for God and they are commanded through scripture.
Biblical love will take care of all the areas of our lives that seem to hurt our spiritual walk. Will we ever achieve perfect love? I think any area of perfection is impossible in our physical bodies because we have a sinful nature. However, that is no excuse to not seek to love others and God with complete surrender. We should be striving every day to love God and others more. It’s a command and with our obedience, we will grow to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We need to keep pressing forward and when we fail, get back up and start again. It reminds me of a song I used to sing with children I taught. The words go like this; “Little by little, inch by inch, by the yard it’s hard, by the inch what a cinch, never stare up the stairs, just step up the steps, little by little, inch by inch!” That is a great recipe for successful Christian living that is based on love.
