In Matthew 22:35:38, we read, “And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?’ 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. This is the great and first commandment…” If we are to truly love God with ALL of our HEART, SOUL, and MIND, we MUST value Him MORE than ANYTHING else in the entire world. And when we value Him that much – the MOST IMPORTANT thing in this world to us is going to be getting to Know Him Better!
Just as in a new relationship, when we meet someone that we feel love toward, we want to know more and more about them, we want to spend time with them, we even give up things in order to please them and be with them. And, the stronger that relationship grows, the more we are willing to sacrifice, just because we love them. Yet thousands of people claim to love Jesus, yet they never spend time with Him, seldom talk with Him, don’t put Him first in their lives, etc., If we TRULY LOVE Jesus Christ – it’s going to CHANGE our lives!
Thousands of people will one day stand before God and hear the sad words “‘I never knew you; depart from me”, and will be forever lost. Yet, they will have thought all along everything was fine because they “claim” to know God. A TRUE love for God will impact and change our lives drastically. Jesus Himself said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
Just as true love for another human being will change us, so will TRUE LOVE for Jesus Christ. Do you LOVE HIM? Or do you just know about Him?
Jesus put it QUITE PLAINLY in Matthew 10:37-39, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If we TRULY LOVE HIM, HE WILL BE FIRST IN OUR LIVES! Not because of His Commandments to do so – but because of OUR GREAT LOVE FOR HIM! TRUE LOVE!!