“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.'” Matthew 22:36-38
If you’re anything like me, reading these commands from Jesus makes you pause.
Is my Christian life marked by this kind of love for God?
If I’m honest, it’s not.
I love the Lord, but my heart, soul, and mind are often divided. My heart loves the Lord but also deeply desires admiration from others. My soul loves the Lord but also tries to worship wealth and security. My mind loves the Lord but is often full of thoughts distorted by a wrong view of God and the world He created.
And what about my neighbor? Do I love the people in my life as myself?
Not often.
Sadly, I often choose myself over others, tending to my own needs, comfort, and preferences rather than giving generously to the people God has placed in my path.
Now, if you’re a sinner like me (and if you’ve read this far, I think you know you are), this is true for you, too. Maybe you’re tempted to divide your affections in different ways, but the call is the same for both of us: God desires us to love Him with all of our hearts, souls, and minds and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
On our own, this is impossible, but there is great hope in the gospel for you and me.
Jesus Christ obeyed these commandments perfectly in His earthly ministry, and in so doing, He saved us.
Think about it:
Christ loved the Father with all His heart, soul, and mind.
Throughout His earthly ministry, Christ’s affections were perfectly set on the Father. He loved the Father most, which is most clearly evident in His perfect obedience. In the garden of Gethsemane, He asks the Father to take the cup of His wrath away—the pain and weight of bearing the punishment for our sins on the cross—yet He says, “Not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). In the end, we know He does bear it; for the love of the Father . . . and for the love of you and me.
Christ loved His neighbor as Himself.
As the second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ has always enjoyed perfect communion and love with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and in his perfect love and generosity, He wanted us to enjoy this kind of access to God as his brothers and sisters—co-heirs with Him (John 17:24; Romans 8:17). Yet, in our sinful state, we were separated from God, so the only way to make this possible was for God Himself, in the form of Jesus Christ, to take on the punishment for our sins on the cross.
“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
Jesus is the perfect friend—loving His neighbor as himself—by laying down His life so that we could enjoy perfect fellowship with God forever.
Now, by the Holy Spirit, we can walk in obedience to these commands (John 14:15–17). Though we walk imperfectly now, we’re being made to look more like the image of Christ and can walk in freedom because of the work He has already done for us.
Have you found this freedom in Christ?
Written by Marjorie Roberson, Guest Contributor
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