And He said to him, “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’
Matthew 22:37 HCSB

Have you ever given someone one simply thing, just one thing, to do and they failed to do it? I don’t know about you, but when I ask someone to do just one simple thing and they failed to do it. It really frustrates me. Can you just imagine how often we must leave God feeling frustrated?

In our scripture passage today, a lawyer was testing Jesus. He thought that he would trip Jesus up by asking which commandment was the most important one. Jesus used two sentences to sum up all ten commandments. First Jesus told Him that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, and our mind. When we do this we will not violate any of the commandments that speak of our relationship with God. We won’t have any other gods before Him. We won’t make an idol or worship an idol. We won’t misuse God’s name in any way. We will remember the sabbath and keep it holy. Also, if we truly love the Lord with all we have, we will find it easy to keep the commandments concerning our relationships with other people. Jesus summed this up by saying that the second greatest commandment was that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

In saying this, Jesus knew that if we loved the Lord with our whole heart we would love others. In doing so, we would honor our father and our mother. Now I was very fortunate in that I had good parents who loved me and did not abuse me. If that was not the case, and your parents were neglectful or abusive, you can honor them by praying for them and forgiving them. Ephesians 4:32 says that we are to forgive others as God forgives us.

If we love others as we love ourselves, we will not commit murder, adultery, or theft. We will also not slander someone or give false testimony. We will be happy for others when they have nice things. We will not covet or passionately desire what they have been blessed with, but we will be content with what God has provided for us.

Loving God with all our heart means that our heart is totally devoted to Him. This means that each and every day we ask God to fill our heart with His Holy Spirit. When we do this, God’s love spills out of our hearts and our mouths. This helps us to treat others in the same way we desire to be treated. This helps us love those who are unlovable and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

When we love God with all our soul, we commit our soul to Him. We let His love and His light crowd out any darkness that tries to get in. My former partner used to say of our offenders, “they are stealing my soul.” When we look at the depravity in this dark world it is as though the darkness is trying to crowd out our light. But the Bible tells us this cannot happen. We are told in John 1:5 that the light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it. In Luke 11:35-36, Jesus said, “Take care then, that the light in you is not darkness. If, therefore, your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be entirely illuminated, as when a lamp shines its light on you.” Just think about walking into a dark room and turning the light on. The darkness cannot overcome the light. If you have ever been in the woods when it is dark with a flashlight, you know that the darkness cannot overcome the light. So, love the Lord your God with your whole soul and let your light shine in this dark world.

When we love the Lord with our whole mind, we take every thought captive to be obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Proverbs 23:7 says as a man thinks so is he. What we think about is crucial to who we are. Sin begins in the mind. If we don’t stop it there by taking our thoughts captive and making them obedient to Christ, they will get into our hearts and this causes big trouble. The devil likes to lie to you and tell you that just thinking about sinning is not wrong, but the Bible does not say that. It tells us that we must stop wrong thoughts or as our pastor like to say, “stinking thinking”.

If you will take time to know God, you will find He is easy to love. You’ve been given one simple thing to do. When we love God wholeheartedly, we bring honor and glory and praise to Him in all that we do. How is that going for you?