Loving God Is Easier Than Loving Others But It Is Still Difficult

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”—Matthew 22:35-39

Suppose I asked you if you love God – if you are a Christian I am certain that you would say, “yes”. I mean why would I ask you that? Doesn’t your proclaimed faith prove that? Loving God is the greatest commandment. It covers the first four of the BIG TEN. (The last six are covered by the second commandment.) But there is a catch – loving God the way Jesus said we are to love God does not leave any room for loving the world – there is nothing that can be our primary devotion except God. Oh, you get that? I am not telling you anything that you don’t already know. The words in the Bible do not change and yet we are encouraged to meditate on the words of the Word in order to have a prosperous and successful new life in Christ. (Joshua 1:8) In reading those words, the Spirit of God uses them to reprove (reprimand), correct, and instruct all Christians. My point, we need to be reminded that our primary devotion is to God.

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” – 1 John 2:15-17

How much do you struggle with keeping God in His proper place in your life.  It is too easy to let the things of this world – things that seem to bring some sort of comfort to you to dilute your love for and devotion to God. You know it’s true! So if what is easy is difficult – how easy is it to love others?

People who are not perfect – who do not have your best interest in mind. People who really don’t care about your problems but are more interested in what you can do for them.  People who are not like you. People who don’t share your values – your heritage – don’t live like you – don’t look like you – don’t talk like you. People that God says to love because He loves them. Let me share a secret with you.  You can’t love others – not on your own anyway.

 “We love Him because He first loved us. If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” – 1 John 4:19-21

So you see – we must love God the way Jesus said, if we have any hope in loving others. If you don’t love others, it is because you are having a problem with God not being in the right place in you life. Now don’t confuse loving others with liking what they do. God did not like what we were doing before He sent Jesus to die for us.

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” – Romans 5:6-11

The lack of unity among Believers is proof that we struggle with loving God and loving others.  Fixing that problem starts with each of us. Think about it.

By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone