Matthew 22:36-38. “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 foremost commandment.”
1 John 4:16-19. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us.
1 John 2:3-6. By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ” I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected . By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
John 14:21,23. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”….”If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
Why would the Lord God give to fallen mankind ‘the great and foremost commandment’ that He knew no one would be able to keep? Surely it is that He desires above all else from those He created in His own image, that He would receive from them, in like measure, what He freely and unrestrictedly gives to them – love.
It is instructive to note that, had Adam entered into this love relationship with his Creator, neither he nor his wife Eve would have, or could have, disobeyed Him. In a perfect environment the first rule of love is that in everything you will seek to please the one whom you love ‘with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’, by doing what is pleasing to them. Had Adam and Eve chosen to eat the fruit of the tree of life they would have been filled with the love of God, they would have gladly and willingly obeyed His every word and they would have lived forever.
‘God is love’. The very essence of the Triune God is pure and perfect love; unchanging and everlasting. In Romans 5:5 we read that The love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The love of God was poured out within our hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit at the instant when we believed. On His entry into us we were given the ability and right to love God as He loves us. ‘We love, because He first loved us’. The Spirit of the Living God was joined with our human spirit that He might make His home within us forever; not only during this life, but throughout eternity.
‘By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments’ To know Jesus is to love Jesus. To love Jesus is to follow Him, to listen to His voice and to obey Him every day and in every way, for ‘whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected’.
An amazing pathway filled with exceeding great promises lies ahead of those who love God. Some of these are unveiled in the two verses quoted from John 14. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”….’. Jesus is here referring to much more than the commandments given to Moses. He is stating that those who really love God will live by His every word as spoken within them by the Holy Spirit. That we choose to do this will come from a heart of love for Him and a spontaneous, willing obedience rather than from any sense of requirement or obligation. To His devoted ones Jesus promises to reveal Himself that we may know Him intimately now, in this life, even as we are known by Him.
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.” We shall live by His every word, just as He while on earth lived by every word He received from His Father. The great promise of this verse for those who ‘will keep His word’ is that they will enjoy the indwelling presence, not only of the Holy Spirit, but also of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
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