Bible League: Living His Word You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.Jesus identified our verse for today as being the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-38). It is the greatest one because it is the most fundamental one. Since there is nothing greater than God, the commandment to love Him is the greatest one. The commandment that Jesus identified as being second, "Love your neighbor the same as you love yourself" (Matthew 22:39), is second because the object of love is not as great as God. What exactly does it mean to love God? The Greek word for love used in the Gospel of Matthew has more to do with commitment than with feeling. It is to commit oneself, to give oneself over to something, to put something first. The command to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, then, would mean to totally and wholeheartedly commit ourselves to Him as being first in our lives. Deuteronomy 11:1 says that we should ". . . love the LORD your God. You must do what he tells you to do and always obey his laws, rules, and commands." If we are to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength, then we should obey His commands, including the one to love Him. Loving God is to love Him for who He is and what He is all about. Since God is the designer and creator of all things, it makes sense that our love for Him would include our obedience to His requirements of us. Indeed, how could we truly love God and ignore these requirements? All of us, of course, fall short of the command to love God. Even though we should, we don't always commit ourselves to Him wholeheartedly, and we don't always put Him first. Fortunately for us, when Jesus identified the greatest commandment, He was not trying to set up a legalistic standard that must be obeyed, lest salvation is lost in the balance. The greatest commandment remains a commandment, but, for those in Christ, obedience to the commandment is now measured by what Jesus did, rather than what we do---for "through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19). Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingGenesis 1, 2 Genesis 1 -- God creates heaven, earth, plants, animals and man NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Genesis 2 -- Adam and Eve's Beginning in the garden of Eden NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 1 Matthew 1 -- The Genealogy, Conception and Birth of Jesus NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion I am worn out from sobbing.All night I flood my bed with weeping, drenching it with my tears. Insight Pouring out his heart with tears, David was completely honest with God. We can be honest with God even when we are filled with anger or despair because God knows us thoroughly and wants the very best for us. Anger may result in rash outward acts or turning inward toward depression. But because we trust in our all-powerful God, we don't have to be victims of circumstance or be weighted down by the guilt of sin. Challenge Be honest with God, and he will help you turn your attention from yourself to him and his mercy. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Songs 1:4 We will be glad and rejoice in thee.We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will not open the gates of the year to the dolorous notes of the sackbut, but to the sweet strains of the harp of joy, and the high sounding cymbals of gladness. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise unto the rock of our salvation." We, the called and faithful and chosen, we will drive away our griefs, and set up our banners of confidence in the name of God. Let others lament over their troubles, we who have the sweetening tree to cast into Marah's bitter pool, with joy will magnify the Lord. Eternal Spirit, our effectual Comforter, we who are the temples in which thou dwellest, will never cease from adoring and blessing the name of Jesus. We will, we are resolved about it, Jesus must have the crown of our heart's delight; we will not dishonor our Bridegroom by mourning in his presence. We are ordained to be the minstrels of the skies, let us rehearse our everlasting anthem before we sing it in the halls of the New Jerusalem. We will be glad and rejoice: two words with one sense, double joy, blessedness upon blessedness. Need there be any limit to our rejoicing in the Lord even now? Do not men of grace find their Lord to be camphire and spikenard, calamus and cinnamon even now, and what better fragrance have they in heaven itself? We will be glad and rejoice in Thee . That last word is the meat in the dish, the kernel of the nut, the soul of the text. What heavens are laid up in Jesus! What rivers of infinite bliss have their source, aye, and every drop of their fulness in him! Since, O sweet Lord Jesus, thou art the present portion of thy people, favor us this year with such a sense of thy preciousness, that from its first to its last day we may be glad and rejoice in thee. Let January open with joy in the Lord, and December close with gladness in Jesus. Daily Light on the Daily Path Deuteronomy 31:8 "The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed."Exodus 33:15 Then he said to Him, "If Your presence does not go with us, do not lead us up from here. Jeremiah 10:23 I know, O LORD, that a man's way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps. Psalm 37:23,24 The steps of a man are established by the LORD, And He delights in his way. • When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the LORD is the One who holds his hand. Psalm 73:23,24 Nevertheless I am continually with You; You have taken hold of my right hand. • With Your counsel You will guide me, And afterward receive me to glory. Romans 8:38,39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, • nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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