“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”
Mark 12:30 NKJV
When it comes to this command, this was no new concept to those listening to Jesus. (See Deu. 6:4-5 & Lev. 19:18) Every command of the New Covenant bears great significance. Yet, we would be unwise in failing to acknowledge those which passed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, such as this one.
My goal over the next few weeks is to break down this command. We need to trace our steps and make sure we’re still on track. Let’s start with the heart.
Wholehearted Love
What does it mean to love the Lord your God with all of your heart? First, we have to note the intentionally of the word choice here. I don’t want to dumb this down, but it’s important to consider why Jesus didn’t choose another organ, let’s say the appendix. We can survive without our appendix. He was communicating how vital a wholehearted love for God really is. If you lose wholehearted love, you lose the meaning of life. It’s not like the appendix, you cannot survive without it. Your existence will feel meaningless and dead because you were created to be consumed by God’s love for you and your love for Him.
Let me ask, does the kind of wholehearted love that I’ve just described sound like the kind of love you have for God?
TRACE YOUR STEPS
For many, if you answered that question honestly, you recognized something painful. Yes, you still love Jesus but not wholeheartedly like you once did. Where did we get off track? How did we lose our way?
One of my favorite promises in the Bible comes from a message Jesus preached on the side of a mountain. Matthew 5:8 NKJV records Him saying these words, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” What a promise! If we walk in purity, free from contamination, wholeheartedly in love with God, we WILL see Him.
Yet, as glorious as this sounds, I believe this promise also pinpoints our problem. If purity elevates our perception than what does a lack of purity communicate? A heart with divided affections will have a weak perception of God.
Tap Out
Here’s where you have to trace your steps. If you feel like God is a million miles away, and hidden behind a cloud of confusion, it could be a sign that you’ve slipped away from loving Him wholeheartedly. If so, tap out. The only life worth living is the life that is wholeheartedly in love with Jesus.
Caleb and Ali live in East Tennessee where they serve at The Lift Church. With boldness and conviction, their deepest desire is to see the church revived and the world awakened. Learn more about The Lift by visiting theliftchurch.tv.
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