He Started It!
November 11, 2009 | 
Author Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
While pondering this verse, what Jesus called “the greatest commandment” I was struck by how impossible this commandment really is to follow. I mean seriously, no matter how devoted, there are parts of my heart, soul, mind and strength that are devoted to many things other than loving the Lord my God.
Regardless, the command remains and I endeavor to follow it more perfectly. But, how do I go about doing that? I’m so prone to dogmatism and legalism. I want no part of the stinking self-righteousness that trying to be obedient to God in my own strength produces.
John taught that “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). This is the way in which I believe love and obedience grow gracefully.
- I am loved by God
- I receive that love and in turn love God
- I obey God because I love Him
This begins with God, not with me. Love begins with God, not with me. Obedience begins with God, not me.
So looking back at the greatest commandment with this perspective, I am only able to love God with my heart to the extent that I have allowed God’s love to enter my heart. I am only capable of loving God with my soul to the extent I have allowed my soul to be loved by God. My mind will only love Him to the extent that I believe Jesus really loves my mind (even when it’s filled with ugly thoughts).
By contrast, to the extent that I hide my heart, soul, mind and strength from the love of God in Jesus Christ, I cannot love him nor obey his commands.
Let’s stop kidding ourselves; believing that our self-righteous, white-knuckling legalism is of any spiritual value. Obedience born of pride is not obedience at all. Only obedience inspired by the Love of God is true obedience. This is kind of obedience is of great value!
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.
Put simply: obedience begins with love and love begins with God.
He started it…let him finish it!
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I agree with you in every way. I also believe that Christ’s command that is an invitation.
As you have said, it is more than any of us can ever accomplish. And if we believe that we must accomplish it or that the goal of the command is for us to more perfectly attain it, then we fall short. It’s in this way that subtle Phariseeism and legalism creep in. (Personally, I believe that perfectionism is of the devil.)
I regard Christ’s command as a challenge for an ongoing and deepening relationship, and that as we endeavor into this relationship, we will find ourselves led into and more capable of naturally living out a life of obedience. All the pressure is off of us because of what Christ has done. It is never a have to, it becomes a want to. It is not obligation, it is passion. I like the way you expressed this in your thoughts, by the way.
Finally, I need to remind myself that my obvious acts of disobedience are not truly my sin. My sin is my deviation from faith (whatsoever is not of faith is sin) and the “sinful” acting out I do is just the result. No one goes to Hell for what they do. They end up in Hell because of their unbelief.
David Zailer – Operation integrity
Thanks for your comments, David! I appreciate how you added the element of relationship and the invitation to an ever deepening intimacy with Jesus.