“Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38 NLT)
Why do you think the first of God’s Commandments is to love Him? This is obviously something Jesus believed and taught, but why? What is so critical about loving our Creator?
Loving God supremely is critical because it is the foundation of a life that honors Him, reflects His character, and aligns with His purposes. Scripture makes it clear that God’s love is not just an attribute —it is His very nature (1 John 4:8), perfect, unconditional, and eternal. When we love Him supremely, we respond to His grace, not as a human achievement, but as a heart reaction to His first love for us (1 John 4:19).
God’s love doesn’t obligate us to do anything, rather it opens to us a view of Him we’d never seen before. It’s the difference between seeing pictures of the Grand Canyon and taking a helicopter tour of it or sitting on the edge of a huge boulder looking down at people who look like ants or watching the sun set over its awesome presence.
We can content ourselves to know the Lord loves us and is for us or we can immerse ourselves in His compassion and care so personally it changes everything else. I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis’ quote: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” The Lord’s love permeates every cell of our heart, mind, soul, and body and when we personally experience the grandeur of His vast love, everything else is influenced by its brilliance.
Andrew Murray understood this as reflected in his words: “It is the wholehearted surrender in everything to do His will, that gives access to a life in the abiding enjoyment of His love. Obey and abide.” In some ways it’s like watching a movie with two people who really love one another and thoroughly enjoy being together, then viewing your own life and wondering what’s missing. God’s love is fulfilling, complete, all-inclusive.
We see others who seem to have such intimacy with the Lord, such closeness and satisfaction in their walk with Him, but we just don’t get it! “What’s their secret? Why can’t I have that same intimacy with my heavenly Father?” There is no secret, it just involves a willingness to put Him first in everything, to give Him “wholehearted surrender in everything to do His will.”
The reason many professing believers in Jesus don’t have closeness with Him is because they still have their own agenda. What they want often or always takes priority over what the Lord clearly teaches in His Word. We want to rule our own life, but still go to heaven, never stopping to realize heaven is filled with the loving presence of the God we want to ignore on earth. There is no appeal to heaven if not Him. He IS Heaven’s draw!
Heaven for too many is simply the escape plan from hell. “I don’t want to go to hell, so I’ll jump through a few religious hoops so I can go to heaven”, but that’s not how it works. We trade our life for His, our will for His, our love of ourselves and this world for love of Him. He becomes our everything, or He’s nothing, there’s no in between. We’re either sold out to the Lord or we’re still struggling in our sin.
There’s no joy in God’s love without surrender to His will. It’s not simply about saying a “sinner’s prayer”, it’s about exchanging our sin for His forgiveness; our life for His; our future in hell for a new future with Him in heaven and the only thing that costs is … EVERYTHING WE ARE OR EVER HOPE TO BE OR HAVE, FROM THIS MOMENT ONWARD!
If you’re willing to pay the price, your joy in Jesus will know no bounds!
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 