Jesus gave a simple but profound answer to the question, “Master, which is the great commandment in the law?” in Matthew 22:36. Verse 37: Jesus said unto him, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
The word for love in this passage (“agapao”), and the similar word, “agape,” are each used over 100 times in the New Testament. In these passages, the Holy Spirit defines what it means to love God and others as He commands.
1 John 5:3 says “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.” The verse before says “by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments.” In John 14:15, Jesus says “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Loving God does not mean living for ourselves and then claiming God is rewarding us by giving us all of our temporal desires. Rather, it means transforming our lives to become what He wants us to be. It demands change, sacrifice, hard work, and attention to every part of His Word.
This has a number of applications. On one hand, there can be a temptation to follow certain commands of God, or at least appear to on the surface, without a sincere desire to please Him. There are those who “go through the motions” when praying and worshipping (Matt. 6:7). There are those who do certain things merely to “impress” others (Matt. 23:5). Such have not truly given their lives over to God (cf. Rom. 12:1).
On the other hand, there can be a temptation to sincerely want to please God, but to try to do so by looking to our own ideas of what pleases God. Loving God as He commands demands digging into His Word to see what we need to change, how He wants us to think, how He wants us to speak, how He wants us to act, and who He wants us to be.
Jesus’ command to love our neighbors is likewise defined in Scripture. John 13:34: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Just as Christ placed our needs ahead of what what was most pleasant or desirable for Himself, we must have this same care for others that leads us to do what we can to help them (1 Cor. 10:33; Phil. 2:4).
Such selflessness produces the fruit God desires (cf. Gal. 5:14). Loving others as ourselves leads to humility, honesty, patience, and kindness (1 Cor. 13:4-8).
As with many of God’s commands, understanding love requires “seeing the forest for the trees,” but also seeing the trees in the forest. The big picture is pleasing God and serving others, but the details of His Word tell us how to do this.
May we sincerely desire to please God and serve others, and may that sincerity be manifested in actions, thoughts, and words that please Him and help others in the way God’s Word commands.
– Michael Hickox