The greatest of all the commandments, given to mankind throughout the Holy Word of God, as Jesus said, is “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.” (Mark 12:29-31)
The sum of all reasons are: the conclusion of the whole matter is, the Lord is Worthy of all our love; with every part of us that He has created and enabled us to love Him with. Our heart, the core of who you the individual are; with which when we love wholeheartedly, we are honestly loving Him first, and choosing Him above all else. Our soul, with which we are loving and communing with God in that eternal, spiritual part of us. Our mind, the intelligent part of you, which delights to seek, study and grow in the knowledge of the Lord and His Word to us. And our strength, the body and energy within it, which can be ruled by the mind, under God’s Spirit to act in obedience to fulfill His divine purpose, unto His honor, glory and pleasure.
Psalm 139:14-18, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand.” You are no accident. God’s fingerprints of wise design are all over you. You are a living, breathing, beautiful in complexity, scientific miracle: and God thinks innumerable loving thoughts toward you.
In gratitude for life, and even more in thankfulness for eternal life through Christ, we should love Him by living for Him. Psalm 34:8, O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the one that trusts in Him.” God has been so very kind to us, to equip us with taste buds, by which we can enjoy so many delicious flavors of food, to nourish and replenish and power our bodies. He also graciously gave us eyes, which can perceive around one million colors (according to scientists), and we appreciate light, and greatly enjoy beauty.
I would like to glorify God by also adding to this Psalm, that He has created us with ears to hear music, the laugh of a child, the song of a bird. Then our nose, which may smell the rain, a flower’s perfume, or the bacon. God has gifted us with the sense of touch, our skin tingles as we take in the softness or texture, cold or warmth. All this information received through our amazing and multiple receptors to send to our brain, to understand that “the Lord is good.”
And because God is good, we love Him with our body, and our strength, by using them to bless Him back. We use our bodies, His temple for good works of love and righteousness. I Cor. 10:31, “Whether ye eat, or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” We keep our bodies, His temple, from sinning against Him and others. I Cor.9:27, “But I keep my body under (control), and bring it into subjection.”
Remember we learned that love is a verb, an action word. Love compels us to do something loving. What love for God does not look like is living in any way that is opposed to, or rebellious to His will. What He forbids, condemns and calls an abomination is sin, and He hates sin. Anything that is against His holiness is evil, and, we also are to hate all wickedness. (Ps.97:10, Prov.8:13).
Don’t misunderstand me, God commands us to love people, even sinful ones; but, we are to still despise the sinfulness. Don’t forget, we were also sinners before receiving the cure; Jesus the Savior. I John 2:3-6, “And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that says I know Him, and keeps not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him…He that says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk, even as He (Jesus) walked.”
Once again, Jesus is our greatest example of what loving God looks like. And God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us love, and obey Him. If we love God with all of our strength, what it will look like, is that we are on a mission to make Him happy. It will look like we intend to do His will with all our might, and we do so as a body in motion, following Jesus. Sometimes that will be in a direction of worship, as our joy is full and our “cup runs over.” We may be “lifting up holy hands” (I Tim.2:8 & Psalm 24:3-4), and our voices might be raised to “sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever” (Psalm 34:1, 63:3, 89:1).
Sometimes our love for God will be in the direction of loving others. Perhaps a hand up (Prov.22:9, James 1:27, 2:15-17) and Matt.25:34-40, “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily (truly) I say unto you, In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” One of the best ways to love others is by sharing the greatest news of all, the Gospel Message with those who don’t yet know the Lord. (I Tim. 2:24-26, Jude 1:22-23, Daniel 12:3, Ps.126:6) It is with our bodies; our eyes,ears, mouth, hands and feet that we are “doers of the Word, and not hearers only”. And we do so, not out of duty, but out of the pleasure this love gives us. We are gladly living out our lives as a gift back to the Lord; We are His temple, lifting up our loving, joyful worship to the One Who made us, and saved us.
When all of these parts of you are working together as a whole, to love the Lord, God is fully blessed by you. When with your heart you desire Him first, when you adore and fellowship with Him in your eternal soul, when with your mind you meditate on His goodness and His Word, and when you worship and serve Him with all the strength in your body, God must be so very happy He created you. Fall in love with Him daily. Abide in Him continually. “Cleave (stick, adhere) unto Him for He is thy life.” (John 15:1-17, Deut.30:20)
May God bless you richly throughout your life, as you bless Him.
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