Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
(Matthew 22:37–38, KJV)
INTRO
Jesus said that the first and greatest commandment of all is to love God, but what does this even mean practically and biblically speaking?
Ask any Christian if they love God and you will get a hearty “yes” in reply. Ask them how they know that they actually love God and the answers become a bit less emphatic and more abstract. Often the answers will be ultimately rooted in some sort of emotional feeling.
With the Bible as our guide and our measure of truth, is using emotions and feelings as evidence of one’s love for God Biblical? After all, the Bible speaks of the human heart being deceitful.1 This is not to say that our love for God will be absent of stirred emotions, quite the contrary, but it does mean that we must have more than what we believe to be heartfelt emotions if we are going to achieve a Biblical standard.
So, what is the Biblical standard when it comes to defining what loving God means?
ANALOGY
Before diving into scriptures to answer this question, let me first make a detour to present an analogy to stimulate reflection.
Suppose there is a wife who says very confidently that she loves her husband. In fact, to affirm this, she tells him every day (or at least nearly every day) that she loves him. She has emotional feelings toward him and shows him some level of affection. Yet, there is one problem… she is unfaithful and regularly cheats on him with other men. Can we then say that this unfaithful wife truly loves her husband? Certainly not. Though she may profess it with her mouth, and may have a stir of emotions, her actions speak otherwise.
Suppose there is another wife. This time, she is faithful - physically speaking. She has never slept with another man. Yet, in her heart and thoughts, she does often turn her mind toward other men. The only reason she hasn’t followed through with an affair is due to the fear of getting caught or of the consequences that would follow. Is this true love? Again, the answer is no, regardless of what she may say with her words.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?
First Mention (God Himself)
You might be surprised to know (I was when I started to search up scriptures on this topic) that the first mention in the Bible of love toward God is found in the ten commandments! That alone is quite an interesting detail to consider. Add to that, that the very words themselves were literally, actually, and audibly spoken by God Himself to the Israelites when this “first mention” for scripture came into being.
Now, let us see exactly what the text says (we find it in the second commandment):
Exodus 20:4–6 (KJV) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
See also Deuteronomy 5:10.
Before we move on to the next scripture, there is an important connection that I want us to draw from these verses. Notice that love for God, in the very ten commandments of God, is linked with keeping His commandments.
This link will be the focus for the rest of the article. Though there are other verses that speak of love toward God, I am drawing our attention to the number of times it is paired with obedience.
Moses
After directing the people to be set apart from the heathen2 and speaking of Jehovah’s3 love for them,4 Moses goes on to describe God as the “faithful God” to those that love him and keep his commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:9 (KJV) Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Building from this, we see Moses write five more times in the book of Deuteronomy of loving God in connection with obedience in keeping His commandments. Here are the scriptures:
Deuteronomy 10:12–13 (KJV) And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13 To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
Deuteronomy 11:1 (KJV) Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
Deuteronomy 11:22 (KJV) For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;
Deuteronomy 19:9 (KJV) If thou shalt keep all these commandments to do them, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, and to walk ever in his ways; then shalt thou add three cities more for thee, beside these three:
Deuteronomy 30:16 (KJV) In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Joshua
Joshua reinforces what Moses had to say regarding the link between loving God and keeping His commandments:
Joshua 22:5 (KJV) But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Nehemiah
While in earnest prayer, Nehemiah calls upon God while making mention of the connection with loving Him and keeping His commandments:
Nehemiah 1:5 (KJV) And said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments
Isaiah
Isaiah makes mention of loving God in connection with the fourth commandment:
Isaiah 56:6 (KJV) Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, To serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, To be his servants, Every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, And taketh hold of my covenant;
Daniel
Daniel, in a similar fashion to Nehemiah, calls upon God in prayer and remembers his promise to them that love Him and keep His commandments:
Daniel 9:4 (KJV) And I prayed unto the Lord my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments;
New Testament First Mention
It is worth stating that the first mention of loving God, which is found in the New Testament, comes from Jesus as He quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5:
Matthew 22:37–38 (KJV) Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment.
Jesus
Jesus says to keep His commandments if you love Him:
John 14:15 (KJV) If ye love me, keep my commandments.
He goes on from this to say that those who keep His commandments are the ones that love Him and that they will be loved by both Him and His Father:
John 14:21 (KJV) He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
and those who keep His commandments will abide in His love:
John 15:10 (KJV) If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
We are called to walk as Jesus walked.5 He is our example. In both John 15:10 above and in the following verse, Jesus sets an example for us to follow in obedience to the Father’s commands:
John 14:31 (KJV) But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.
John
John, the disciple “whom Jesus loved,”6 writes that a true love for God is seen through keeping His commandments:
1 John 5:3 (KJV) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
In this statement, John adds an important qualifier: in order for the keeping of His commandments to truly be a reflection of a heart that loves God, the keeping of those commandments is not a burden to that person. In reality, it is a delight to them.7
Such a person is not keeping God’s commandments to obtain some works-based salvation (such efforts would be in vain anyway). Nor are they doing so to receive something back in return from God. No, the keeping of His commandments, in a non-burdensome manner, is simply an outward flow of the deep love for God that exists in their hearts and is thereby manifested in their obedience to what He has asked of them.
John reinforces this in his second letter, by giving a clear definition of love. This definition has nothing to do with feelings and everything to do with obedience:
2 John 6 (KJV) And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
Revelation
The Bible closes with the book of Revelation, where we find three instances of the remnant church, leading up to the end of this dispensation, being described as having a group of people who are keeping the commandments of God:
Revelation 12:17 (KJV) And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 14:12 (KJV) Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 22:14 (KJV) Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
CLOSING ANALOGY
It seems very clear that, in both the New and Old Testaments, obedience is important. The Biblical definition of love for God is to keep His commandments. There are emotions and feelings that do manifest in loving God, but those feelings are not proof of our love. In saying “I love Him,” mere words are not proof of our love. To love Him is to obey that which He has commanded us to do.
As we close, let us consider one more analogy.
Suppose a farmer has two sons. He has given his sons the rules of the farm (his “kingdom” so to speak). Some of the rules are very obviously important and critical to the smooth operation of the farm. If any of them were not followed, injury, death, or great losses could result.
In the list of these rules, there was one rule that seemed quite minor to the sons, yet it was important to the farmer.
The oldest son hugged his father every day and told him how much he loved him. He obeyed all the rules of the farm, except for one. He never obeyed the one rule which he considered to be minor and of no significance. He reasoned that since he kept all of the really important rules, it was no big deal for him to skip one. It was, after all, a bit of an inconvenience to him. No matter how many times the father reminded him of the one rule that wasn’t getting done, this son always had, what seemed to him, valid reasons for dismissing it.
The younger son, being more reserved, did not give verbal and physical affection as often as the eldest son did. He also kept all of the really important rules, just as the eldest son did. However, when it came time every week for the one minor rule to be addressed, he joyfully and dutifully carried out what his father had asked to be done. At times it was inconvenient, but he didn’t mind and never complained. He obeyed because he loved his father and wanted to please him. His father never had to remind him about the one minor rule.
The farmer observed all these things between both of his sons.
Which son showed true love for his father?
From which son would the farmer feel most loved: the one that exhibited more emotion and spoke affectionate words, or the one that joyfully obeyed him in every particular?
Do the words “obedience” and “commandments” invoke resistance, pushback, and a desire to search for scriptures to explain why these things are not so? Or do they cause you to reflect, consider, and desire to study and pray to see if there is truth to be found?
It is my hope and prayer that each person will end at the latter option, even if they initially react as the first.
God Bless,
Charles
See also:
Wonderful article Charles, it really shines light on the significance of God’s commandments in our lives still today and how we can and should show our love for Him!