HOW TO LOVE THE LORD
Matthew 22:34-40
ILLUSTRATION After she woke up, a woman told her husband, "I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine’s day. What do you think it means?"
"You’ll know tonight." he said.
That evening, the man came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book entitled "The Meaning of Dreams"
EXPOSITION
Why did the expert in the law ask this question?
For centuries, the scribes had documented 613 commandments in the law, 248 positive and 365 negative. The scribes divided the commands into “heavy” (important) and “light” (unimportant). People then had the tendency to major on the “heavy commandments” and not worry about the trivial ones. Jesus however, emphasized that the commands in the Law and the prophets are all important and anyone who violates a law is guilty of violating them all. (See James 2:10)
His response in our text today, is perhaps Jesus’ way of simplifying the obedience of the law. He summarized them into two commandments: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Therefore the best way to obey the Law is to focus on loving God and loving others. We must concentrate on what must be done for God and man instead of thinking of the things that we must not do to our God and man.
What did the response of Christ signify?
The commandments mentioned by Jesus Christ reveal the importance of relationship between God and us. Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationship with people. But all ten are about relationships. In Matthew 22:34-40, Jesus summarized what matters most to God in two statements: love God and love people. The love that must be expressed is done within the context of a relationship. The possessive pronoun “your” signifies a relationship which started way back to Abraham. (See Genesis 17:7-8)
ILLUSTRATION God wanted to possess me, not merely my possessions.
In other words, what is important to God is our personal relationship with Him; not our achievements or the acquisition of things. But at times, the desire for achievements and acquisition of things caused us to sacrifice our relationship with God. We become preoccupied with making a living, doing our work, paying bills, and accomplishing goals as if these tasks are the point of life. They are not. The point of life is learning to love God who created us and to love the people he placed around us.
How can we demonstrate our love for God?
Jesus said that we must “love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our minds, /and with all our strength.” From the point of view of biblical anthropology, "heart," "soul," "mind" and “strength” (v. 37) are not mutually exclusive but overlapping categories. Heart in the Jewish though was the seat of thinking and feeling. Soul is the fountain of man’s will and feelings. Mind refers to the rational element of man which is understanding and intelligence. The strength emphasizes the physical power and being of a person; it also includes the human ability.
It is clear therefore that Jesus was demanding that our love for God to come from our whole person, our every faculty and capacity. We cannot love God by just using our intellect or relying on our emotion solely. Besides love is something that can be best expressed when all the human faculties are utilize together. God desires our whole being and not just a part of us. He wants the whole person and not just a portion. And it is the wise thing to do while living here on earth.
1. It involves our Will.
The will of man refer to his particular desire, purpose, pleasure, and choice. Loving God requires the exercise of our will. Loving God should be our purpose and desire. It is not something that happens automatically but rather a decision that we make and choose to do. That is why loving the Lord is a command because we do not automatically love God. Loving God is not something that we wait to happen, we must make a decision.
When we choose to love somebody, nobody can stop us. People can isolate us from the object of our love but cannot erase the desire and purpose of our heart, because love is something that we have decided within. If you truly “love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” it should be the passion of our heart.
2. It involves our Intellect.
You cannot love somebody without knowing the person first. We need to find out if the person has enough reasons why we should love him or her. Thus we hate the idea of match-making when it comes to finding a life-time partner. God is not unfair, He did not ask for our love without revealing himself to us. Jesus Christ came to reveal the Father – his plans and purposes for our lives. (See John 14:8-11) And based on this revelation of Himself, He is challenging us to respond in love.
And after we have the decision to love God, He continues to reveal His heart to us. The decision to love God should be based in our understanding of His character, purpose, and actions. The God whom Jesus is asking us to love is the God who is perfect, loving, holy, righteous, just, truthful, faithful and etc. His purpose is to make us whole, fulfilled, safe, happy, peaceful, respectful and etc. He showed His love by becoming like us humans, sacrificed his life, gave up His throne, glory, honor, and etc. What else do you want that God will do to prove His love for you? Where else can you find a God like our God? There is none like Him. (See Psalm 86:8-10) Having the best and unequal God should cause us to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Loving God with all our minds is letting Him to have an intellectual right in us. Making Him the preoccupation of our minds.
3. It involves our Strength.
Loving someone motivates us to serve and show our love to him or her. We demonstrate our love by doing things that meets the person needs and purposes. In the same way, loving God requires our strength. Our love for God should cause us to offer our bodies as his instruments in accomplishing His plan. We make ourselves available for service. We find time to do things that will honor and please our God. (See Joshua 24:15)
We take the initiative to accomplish the task He laid at hand. Loving God is not becoming His slaves but taking the opportunity to demonstrate that love for Him. Love is an intangible virtue that needs concrete evidence that it exist. Service is one of the best expressions of love. (See John 13:1-5) And because the recipient of our service is God, we give the best service that we can. We exert our best efforts and time to produce the best work we can. God in return replenishes our resources so we can be His best instruments in accomplishing His plans and purposes.
4. It involves our Emotion.
(See John 11:33-35) Love is seen by the actions that we demonstrate but love can be felt by the emotions that we express. Although emotion is not the best measurement of one’s love but love cannot be without feelings. Love is a verb, an action word and there are corresponding emotions that goes with it – like joy, peace, comfort, and perseverance. (See I Corinthians 13:6-7)
If we love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we should have that feeling of confidence, joy, peace, and comfort because of the thought that we have greatest subject of our love. We rejoice and our eyes glitters when we talk about our relationship with the one we love. I hope that we show the same degree of excitement when we talk about our loving relationship with God. Loving God with all our hearts will mean having the inspiration in our day to day existence. Loving God with all our hearts means enjoying every minute we spend with God, no boring moments.
And because of the kind of love that we receive from God, we should not be surprised if that creates a feeling of security and stability in our hearts. Doubts and worries are not the regular residents in our hearts and minds. The promise of His eternal presence should remove any trace of fears and apprehensions.
