The Most Important Commandment

We recently attended the Desiring God National Conference entitled "Think: the life of the mind and the love of God."  The messages we heard throughout the weekend encouraged us to think about our relationship with God, with fellow believers, with non-believers, and with believers of different religions.  John Piper's ultimate goal of the conference was "thinking for the sake of loving God and people."

And here is how God has been working in my heart since.  One of the verses Piper focused on during the weekend just so happens to be to a catchy tune by Lincoln Brewster, "Love the lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your mind and with all your strength."  So inevitably the song has been in my head since leaving Minneapolis and to make matters worse stuck in my head this afternoon.  Today, I could feel God pressing me to dig into Mark as well.  We are taking our youth through the book of Mark this semester and I've been journaling through it.  Well what do you know, tonight in Mark 12 I came across this:

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Yes Lincoln Brewster is still ringing through my head, but I almost have more appreciation for the song.  For one it is taken directly out of Scripture and Jesus is telling us this is the most important thing for us to do. When we become Christians we ask what can we do?  This is it, "Love.  Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself."  That's it!  There is no prayer to pray, no card to sign, no amount of works or efforts to be put forth.  Just love!

Let's focus on the first and most important commandment given to us by God himself.  What does it mean or look like to love the Lord our God?  I'm excited because we can look in Mark where Jesus says in chapter 8 verse 34 "let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me".  Loving seems so easy, but to deny myself?  That is a challenge.  This is a very tricky thing.  We know that God made us all in particular ways that individualize each of us, but we also need to remember why we're created.  

We are all created in the image of God.  We see this in Genesis 1, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (vs. 27).  The image of God. That is a big deal.  Too big to fully grasp. But the way I best understand it is that I am created to glorify God. God challenges us to put him before ourselves, our spouses, our boyfriends, our girlfriends, our kids in order to glorify him.  I like how Psalm 37:4 puts it, "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."  We read that and think God is happy with what makes us happy.  But ultimately we will find happiness in delighting in Him alone and then he will give us the desires that glorify him. (What's your fruit?)

By denying our self we are showing God our love, but how do we not make Christianity a list of do's and don'ts?  In the movie 'Meet the Robinsons', the character Wilbur always states, "That.. is an excellent question" when he simply wants to avoid answering any question asked to him, but I think I can give you an answer.  Look at what Galatians 6:14 states, "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

We turn to the Son of God.  There is nothing else we can offer but our love, because Jesus Christ was the ultimate sacrifice for our sinful, unloving hearts.  We can't make a check list or do/don't list because we would fail no matter how perfect we try to be.  Jesus was fully human and yet fully perfect because he was fully God.  We are not god of anything, not even our own lives.  So surrendering our hearts to Jesus Christ is what shows God our ultimate love.  We build our relationship with our mediator by knowing him, by loving him.  Praise to the Lord our God whose never-ending love is poured out in the blood of Jesus Christ!  

**check out the Desiring God link, they do have the messages we heard posted to watch or listen to!