Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus replied, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
In a message on this topic of reciprocating God’s love, author and speaker, Frances Chan said: “If you could have heaven with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you’d ever enjoyed and all the natural beauties you ever saw and all the physical pleasures you ever tasted and no human conflict and no natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven if Christ was not there? Let’s be honest, you could go to heaven with all of your friends and family today, there would be no sickness and no death, and it would be the most beautiful place you had ever seen, but Christ wouldn’t be there. Would you be happy?”
When asked what the greatest commandment was in Matthew 22:37-38 Jesus replied, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
As I re-read this verse I was struck by the weight of it. The GREATEST COMMANDMENT is that I should love God with every ounce of my being. He should be my passion, my focus, my pursuit. God is supposed to be my Person. Can I say that I love God with everything in me?
There is a description of a group of people in Revelation 2 who were doing good things for God while breaking the first commandment to love Him with their whole being. Look at these verses from chapter 2, beginning with verse 2:
Revelation 2:2-7 2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5 REMEMBER the height from which you have fallen! REPENT and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. 6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
I think this passage gives us a strategy that can help us re-engage in our love relationship with God if needed. If we have grown cold, if life with Christ has become religious instead of renewing, if our primary motivation to make it to Heaven is to escape the alternative and to be with loved ones rather than to be with Jesus and enjoy God for eternity, how can we fan the flames of our love life with God?
Remember why you began a relationship with God.
I John 4:19 tells us that we love God because He first loved us. We turned to God because God came to us in love. We were moved to accept His gift of salvation because it is the best offer on the planet. It is an extravagant gift. The Holy Spirit helped us see how God had responded in love to a need we had that we couldn’t meet. If you are a Christian today it was because you came to a place where you realized you needed help and the only way to get it was to respond to God’s love.
Can you just stop once in a while and remember what it feels like to be loved by God? Remember His promise to be with you in all circumstances and to shield you from enemy attacks? Can you remember that He is the safe One, the One you can always turn to when you need comfort?
We need to quit taking God’s love and His care for us for granted. Isn’t that what happens in marriages that grow cold? They take each other for granted? Couples quit throwing logs on the fires of romance. They make each other less and less of a priority. They communicate less. They spend less time together. What happens to the quality of the relationship? It deteriorates. What happens to the quality of their love? It diminishes.
When that happens it is time to remember why they first got together. What were those moments like? What drew them to each other? What was that honeymoon period like? What kind of effort and investment did they personally make in order to make each other a priority. There is a direct correlation between our love for God and our focus on spending time with Him. The church in Revelation was busy doing spiritual stuff, but they had let their love for God grow cold. They needed to remember not only what God had done for them but they needed to remember the love they were giving in return when they first came to Christ and how their priorities had shifted.
Repent from attitudes and actions that have gotten you off track.
God doesn’t just want us checking off religious boxes. “Well, God, I came to church three times this month. I put some money in the offering plate. I’m signed up to help in the nursery. I even walked up to the prayer pots to pray for someone else. I don’t really see a problem here.” So what if I haven’t spent personal time with you, God. So what if I haven’t been thinking about you every day. So what if I haven’t even said, “Thank you” or “I love you, God” this week. It’s not like I am pursuing other religions or something.” That attitude of just checking off religious boxes is a problem. If this is your issue, you need to repent, which means you need to change your attitude about why you have a relationship with God in the first place and what your role is in helping to grow in love with Him.
Maybe attitude isn’t your problem. Maybe your problem is your actions. Maybe you really love God, and you even express that on a regular basis, but your actions don’t match your attitude. Maybe you love God, but He isn’t first. Maybe He is somewhere near the bottom of your list. Maybe you love God, but you love things you shouldn’t at the same time?
Some of us believers need to break up with the world. For real. Some of us have been trying to share our hearts with the things of the world. I think many have allowed Hollywood and sports and musical celebrities to impact their love for God more than they would admit. Our hearts are given to statuses and material goods and sensual experiences that mimic the way the world lives. Listen, there is no real love in the world. Real love starts and ends with God. The world’s love is a “here today and gone tomorrow” kind of love. It comes with strings attached. It is about what is in it for me. It’s a disposable, throw-away kind of love. It’s an “I love you” until I don’t need you love.
Listen to me, God will never break up with you. He won’t “ghost you.” If you don’t know what that is ask someone under 21. He won’t stab you in the back. He won’t talk badly about you to other people. He won’t leave you high and dry. You can count on Him. He will stay by your side no matter what. Don’t fall for the imitation love that is found out in the world. Repent from that hollow pursuit. Break up with worldly pleasures, and find the ultimate pleasure in Jesus, the Lover of your Soul.
1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
That doesn’t mean don’t fall in love with someone special. It doesn’t mean don’t love ice cream or puppies. It means, don’t give your heart to the things people without Christ give their hearts to and live for. It means, live for Christ alone.
James 4:4 says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Worldly stuff will lead your heart in the wrong direction, away from God, and away from the good things He has prepared for you, and ultimately it will compromise the love you have to give Him.
Has your love for God grown cold? Remember those early years with the Lord when you were really invested in your relationship with Him, really growing in love with Him and in your desire to express that with others. Today you can repent. You can have an attitude change and a change in your actions. Today, you can break up with the world and you can Recommit your heart to loving God first. Let’s reaffirm our vow to love God with all that we are, to grow our love for Him and to stay in love with Him forever.
