Jan 4

“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Matthew 22:37

There is ‘wholeness’ in the command by which Jesus summarised the early portion of the Decalogue, in this passage. The love we owe the Lord, is a wholehearted, whole-soul and whole-mind kind of love. Yielding only part of ourselves is not sufficient in achieving the correct and close nature of the relationship He desires with us. Contenting ourselves with half-hearted commitment to God, thinking that a ‘little’ of God in our lives is enough, and assuming that the Lord is pleased with such whole-less-ness, is a sorely mistaken notion and a largely misplaced effort. Nothing short of a complete yielding of ourselves in love and the willing effort to achieve this state throughout life, is pleasing to the Omnipotent God we serve, or worthy of Him. The command appears to be a high calling and it is, but it can only be that way, for to have anything of anyone in higher regard, love or esteem in our lives than the Lord whom we call our God and claim to worship, is to have entered into our own form of idolatry and spiritual adultery! Some actually justify their reticence to love God as He commands, for fear of becoming or being seen as ‘fanatical’! Sadly the same individuals often display a greater ‘fanaticism’ for many material aspects of life and do not find this misplaced affection a concern or a bother! There is also the tendency to mistake the object of our love and as a result to love Christianity more so than Christ and humanity more than the human individual. Loving God as He commands, is a far cry from empty headed and imbalanced fanaticism or merely generalised and religious affection. Committed love for God is godly, holy, balanced, humble, wise and kind. It portrays the principles of the faith firmly and lovingly and does not ‘lord it’ over others. In context it would be better for believers to fear far more, being too much in love with the world and the things of it, than too much in love with Jesus! It is our duty, privilege and joy then, to have the highest quality of love for God and hold it as supreme,  above all care and regard for all else in life. In the fulfilment of this command to love God with all the desire of our heart, all the passion of our soul and all the strength of our intellect, we will find the greatest contentment and personal fulfilment and the wisdom and power to carry out the other portion of God’s law – to love others as we love ourselves.


http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion