The Greatest Command is the Greatest Challenge
Quick—what’s the greatest command in the Bible? And what does the greatest command look like in our lives when we obey it?
Matthew 22:37 records Jesus’s answer to the question, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” And Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
That answer presents us with the greatest challenge you and I can face, along with the greatest gift we’ll ever receive. So let’s unpack it . . .
Love the Lord with All Your Heart
David wrote in Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” When we love the Lord with all our heart, He becomes our greatest delight. Our desires are rooted in Him. Our contentment is rooted in Him. And our hopes are rooted in Him. When the Lord is our greatest desire and greatest delight, our love for Him multiplies to fill the length and breadth of our deepest emotions.
Love the Lord with All Your Soul
Loving the Lord with all our soul touches the core of our identity. Who am I? My quick answer is that I am a child of God because I’ve trusted Christ as my Savior. That’s the Sunday school answer. But what does it mean? Unless I understand my identity in Christ, I won’t be able to love God and others well.
The apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church begins with a beautiful description of our identity. In Christ we are chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and recipients of God’s abundant grace.6 And that’s just from the first few verses.
Knowing who we are in Christ causes a spring of love and gratitude to overflow in our hearts for the one who offers salvation freely to us at great cost to Himself. How can I not deeply love the Father who first loved me? And how can I not also love others with the love He has lavished on me?
Love the Lord with All Your Mind
Have you ever heard the criticism that to become a Christian, you have to “check your brain at the door”? Or that belief in Christ requires “blind faith”? The implication is that intelligent people couldn’t possibly believe in God, Jesus, the Bible, or anything else related to Christianity.
Yet throughout history, physicists, biologists, inventors, kings, statesmen, and other people with brilliant minds from all walks of life have examined Scripture and found a credible biblical worldview. Archaeological discoveries continue to support the biblical record. History, accompanied by our personal experiences, affirms the claims of Scripture. We can freely love the Lord with all our minds as well as all our hearts and souls.
The Bible reminds us to set our minds on the things of the Spirit, renew our minds, and take every thought captive in obedience to Christ. We’re reminded to focus our thoughts on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and commendable.10 And, of course, to love the Lord with all our minds.11
Loving the Lord with our minds involves reading His Word, not just to skim it or check a box on our to- do list, but to study it for the purpose of transformation. What begins in our minds changes our hearts and flows out to our behavior.
As we celebrate February, the month associated with love, let’s remember that the challenge of loving God above all else is not something we can do in our own strength. Paul describes love in his letter to the ancient church in Galatia by calling it a display of the fruit of the Spirit. This means that even our obedience comes by the equipping of the Holy Spirit rather than our own effort.
So what does this look like in your life?
* Adapted from Flourish: Grace-Centered Practices to Protect and Grow a Fruitful Life in Christ.
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