Daily Devotion: The Word Revealed - The Greatest Commandment: Not A Burden - John 14 & 15, 1 John 4 & 5
God wants us to love Him deeply, personally, intimately, and passionately. God wants our all. He wants us, in fact, He commands us to love Him with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all our mind. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” The command is simple, straightforward, unmistakable. There is no middle ground. If you don’t love God more than you love your spouse, you sin. If you don’t love God more than you love your children, you sin. If you don’t love God more than you love your country, you sin. If you don’t love God more than you love yourself, you sin. If you don’t love God more than……whatever, you sin.
Jesus Provides What He Demands
“Wait a minute!” “I
think you may have gone a little bit too far.” “This seems too
extreme.” Many feel such an all-encompassing demand seems a little
radical, and at times, too radical. Those folks have a lot of company;
Jesus was considered a radical by many. Jesus did not mince any
words. He was preparing to, in love, give His life for everyone that the
Father loved. Jesus was going to die that they might live. His
death is the supreme act of love which proves God’s love for His
children. Ephesians 5:2, “And walk
in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering
and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” 1 John
3:16a, “By this we know
love, because He laid down His life for us.” Jesus further
characterized the sacrifice of His own life to accomplish the salvation of
God’s elect as, John 15:12-13, “This
is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater
love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
Jesus is the example of what He commands. Jesus did what He requires and
commands of us. But Jesus is more than our example, He is our enabler as
well, 1 John 4:19, “We love Him
because He first loved us.” That love is to consume us.
There is NO Compromise
Jesus is our
example. Jesus is our enabler. But we cannot get away from the fact
that loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is still a command
of God. A command of God the Father in the Old Testament. A command
of God the Son in the New Testament. The triune God issues this command.
All three persons of the Godhead are unified in all things. God commands
us to love Him. John 14:15, 21, 23, “If you
love Me, keep My commandments…..He who has My commandments and
keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My
Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”…..Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father
will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
Obedience to God’s commands is the supreme sign of love.
The Greatest Commandment is Not a Burden
There is no compromise. There is no half-way.
We either love God with our all, or we sin. It is either with all our
heart, all our soul, and all our mind, or it is sin. Is this a burden?
Is this a burden too great to bear? No, this is a joy. 1 John
5:1-3, “Whoever believes
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him
who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we
love the children of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.
And His commandments are not burdensome.” How could it
ever be thought that loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind is a burden
too great to bear? Think of it, God doesn’t spare His only begotten Son,
but sacrifices Him that we might have our sins forgiven, be saved for the
purposes of enjoying the riches of God’s grace and mercy now and forever.
A burden? No!! A joy beyond compare, Amen! God gave all
to save, and all He requires of us is to love Him. That is literally the
best deal, the most one-sided transaction, the world has ever known.