“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
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. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:36–40).
Most of us can quote these verses. But are we heeding them? We put a great deal of emphasis on part 2. Everyone wants us to love each other. But what happened to the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind?
The key word is ALL. We are happy to pay lip service to the Lord but to love Him FIRST and FOREMOST in our lives? We quickly move the Lord to a secondary place in our lives when our desires don't match up with His Word. We do the same if He asks us to do something difficult.
We say we would honor the Lord more if we had time. We DO have time . . . we are simply choosing to put something else before Him! The only person we are fooling is ourselves.
So, here is the challenge: of all the commands in the Bible the best place to start is with the first one.
First and Foremost 11.22.20
“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”
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. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
(Matthew 22:36–40).
Most of us can quote these verses. But are we heeding them? We put a great deal of emphasis on part 2. Everyone wants us to love each other. But what happened to the greatest commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind?
The key word is ALL. We are happy to pay lip service to the Lord but to love Him FIRST and FOREMOST in our lives? We quickly move the Lord to a secondary place in our lives when our desires don't match up with His Word. We do the same if He asks us to do something difficult.
We say we would honor the Lord more if we had time. We DO have time . . . we are simply choosing to put something else before Him! The only person we are fooling is ourselves.
So, here is the challenge: of all the commands in the Bible the best place to start is with the first one.