The Greatest Commandment - 3/1/09pm

Deuteronomy 6:1-3 -The law was for them and their descendants
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 -Love the Lord your God
Deuteronomy 6:10-12 -Love requires remembering the Lord
Deuteronomy 6:13-19 -Fear and obey as part of love
Deuteronomy 6:20-25 -Love requires we teach our descendants
We see here a chapter dedicated to the idea of love for God. Love, both coming from God and directed towards God, is not a concept new to the New Testament. We see here that from early on, love for God was necessary. In fact, it’s repeated several times throughout this same book:
Deuteronomy 5:8-10 -God shows love to those who love Him
Deuteronomy 7:7-10 -God is faithful, keeping the covenant with those who love Him
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 -The Lord asks that we fear Him, walk in His ways, and Love Him
Deuteronomy 11:1 -Love the Lord and keep His commandments
Deuteronomy 13:1-5 -Tests to see if we wholeheartedly love God

Matthew 22:34-40 -The greatest commandment
Here we see Christ quoting from a passage we read earlier in Deuteronomy 6. We must love the Lord. Not just a little bit, but with our entirety.
Matthew 10:37-39 -Must love Christ more than others
Romans 12:9-13 -Love must be without hypocrisy
We cannot be hypocritical in our love: we must put Christ above all others, and live accordingly. We cannot claim to love God full time, but only serve Him part time.
John 14:15-24 -If you love me, keep my commandments
John 15:9-14 -You are my friend if you do as I have said

Thinking back to when Christ was asked what the greatest commandment was, remember that he tied another to it: love your neighbors.
I John 4:19-5 -Love for God requires love for others
John 21:15-19 -Do you love me? Feed my sheep.

Luke 10:25-37 -The good Samaritan
We often look at this passage and apply it to loving others. And rightly so! We must be like the Samaritan. Instead of trying to decide if someone is our neighbor, we make him our neighbor. And our love causes us to go beyond what we may be “required” to do. It causes us to do our best and go as far as we can. Our attitude towards God should be the same. We do not only try to do the minimum, but we should try to go the extra mile, do as much as we can.

If you have not obeyed in baptism, you do not love God. If you have been baptized but have ceased to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul, now is the time to make correction.