The Great Commandment

The Great Commandment

“ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength, and with
all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

Luke 10:27

What is your primary purpose in life? Everything has a primary purpose. The primary purpose of an automobile is to transport us. I would rather have a Chevrolet that starts every time and got me where I needed to be than a fancy, shiny foreign car that only starts on occasion. The primary purpose of a pen is to write. I would rather have a cheap plastic one that writes well than a fancy German pen that skips and does not perform well. Our own primary purpose is found in the words of this week’s verse: “love the LORD your God . . . and your neighbor as yourself.”

All the commandments of God are pure, but only one is called “great.” And it is the one dealing with love for God and for our fellow man. This commandment is called great because it includes all the Ten Commandments within one verse. The first four of “The Big Ten” have to do with our relationship with God (Exodus 20:2–11). Thus, Jesus said, “You shall love the LORD your God.” The last six have to do with our relationship with one another (Exodus 20:12– 17). Thus, our Lord continued, “And [love] ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The first half of the Great Commandment has to do with our attitude and the last half with our actions. Here again is the principle of being coming before doing that we see woven throughout the fabric of Scripture.

OUR ATTITUDE
“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,”

The Lord Jesus referred to this as a commandment. It is not an option, nor is it a suggestion. And it is important to note that this commandment is directed to those who know Christ in a personal way through the new birth. It is the Lord your God to whom He referred. You cannot truly love someone unless you really know that person, and you cannot know someone unless you spend time alone with that person. The emphasis here is on loving the One who first loved us and gave Himself for us.

We are to hold nothing back when we love God. We are to love Him with all our heart. Jesus once spoke of those who honored Him with their lips but not their hearts— they were far from Him (Matthew 15:8). We are to love God with our entire mind. A heart full of love is no excuse for an empty mind. And our attitude should reveal that we love God with all of our strength and soul. In other words, our entire person is to be given over to God in love.

OUR ACTIONS
“[love] your neighbor as yourself.”

If we truly have an attitude of love toward the Lord, then actions revealing our love for others around us will be as natural as water running downhill. This Great Commandment is given to us in the context of the story Jesus told of the good Samaritan. He concluded this story of love for others with an admonition to “go and do likewise” (Luke 10:37). Love is always equated with action. Love is something we do. If our attitude is wholehearted love for Christ, then our actions will result in love for those around us.

Jesus said we are to love our neighbors “as we love ourselves.” Many who have not found their true identity in Christ have a real issue here. Many have little self-respect or self-love. This is why this commandment is directed to those who have fallen in love with the Lord Jesus, because only those of us who find our self-worth in Him can love on the level He commands.

Keeping things in proper order is vitally important. We are to love God first and foremost. When we do this, our actions toward others will issue out of a loving attitude for Him. This fact reveals the fallacy of humanism. Humanism tells us just the reverse of what Jesus said in the Great Commandment. This world system tells us the way to love God is to love man first. But Jesus said, “No, the way to truly love your neighbor is to love the Lord supremely.”

Years ago when I fell in love with my wife, Susie, we were separated by a couple of hundred miles. I was in school in Fort Worth, and she was in school in Austin. I quickly discovered that when two people fall in love, they like to be together. They like to be together . . . alone! They like to write each other letters or send e-mails. They like to talk daily on the telephone. Do you love God? A good test is to ask yourself these questions: Do I like to be with Him? Do I like to be with Him . . . alone? Do I enjoy reading His love letter to me, the Bible? Do I delight in talking to Him in prayer?

Yes, everything has a primary purpose. The real question is “Are we fulfilling God’s primary purpose in our lives by obeying the greatest of all the commandments?”

As you memorize this verse, meditate on the fact that this commandment from the lips of our Lord is so powerful that, in this one verse, He put all the Ten Commandments: “Love the LORD . . . and . . . your neighbor as yourself.”