First Love
Read This Week: Matthew 22
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:34-40 NIV
Jesus demonstrated His love to us and for us to emulate. He showed us how to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit and love others in the way that God designed. Jesus set the tone for us to love so that we could be a beacon of life and hope to a world in despair. He taught and showed us that love empowers and nurtures while providing safety and security within communities. The love Jesus desires for us embodies supernatural tenderness and compassion that draws people to His heart.
But this type of love is impossible toward our fellow man if we do not first love God. It all starts with passionately and wholistically loving God and knowing Him. Jesus taught here that loving God is the catalyst of all other love. Loving God with our whole life – our emotions (heart), our volition (soul), and intellect (mind) is the greatest thing we can do because everything else flows from it. It is at the center of meaning and truth in this life. God is our first love. Jesus says in verses 37-38 of Matthew 22:
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Jesus leaves no room for doubt about what should be the most important pursuit in our lives. The consistent, daily love for God fuels, informs, and empowers the believer to operate spiritually, be on mission, and love other people in the way He loves them. Loving God lays the groundwork for the thing Jesus said was like loving the Lord. The word like is strategically used because it means that the love for our neighbor should be similar to and even resemble the intense, passionate, devoted, and faithful love we have for God. Verse 39 says:
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Jesus says that our horizontal love for others should look like the love we have for God. Our love for people should include our entire being and come as a direct result of our love relationship with the Lord. Therefore, we cannot say that we love God but do not love the people. This contradiction exposes our improper, misguided love for God. To rightly love God is to love the things He loves, and He most certainly loves people. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for them. That is how much he loves people, and we should too.
Loving people the way God wants us to can be hard sometimes. We are all fallible, sinful people, who fail, behave poorly at times, hurt each other, and do not often live up to a Christ-like standard. We can be unlovable. But this passage makes it clear that no one is unloveable for those who have a relationship with Christ and who love God the way they are supposed to. His love in our hearts overcomes the habits, hang-ups, disappointments, hypocrisies, and mechanisms created by people.
Showing love to others can be painfully frustrating at times. It can get tiresome and redundant when we see self-centeredness instead of unity. It can be exhausting when gossip trumps honor, harmony gives way to division, and pride ravenously consumes humility. It hurts when people tear us down, ridicule us, and are hardly ever encouraging. But these realities do not negate the original intent for the love of God displayed through His people. Jesus said it is the greatest thing we can do not because it is easy but because it is impossible without the love of God. That is what makes it great.
There is so much beauty and power in the response of Jesus to the Sadducees and Pharisees. They aimed to trip Him up and cause Him to say something that would blaspheme the law so they could arrest Him and put Him to death. But Christ uses it to teach about love. His answer is love – the love of God and the love of our fellow man. Love is first. It is the greatest, noblest, and most impactful thing human beings can do on earth.
I found out that the kingdom of heaven works different than the kingdom of the world, that God’s ways are better than the ways of the world. In the kingdom of heaven, you get by giving, the servant is the greatest, and you focus on God and others, rather than yourself.
While you are loving God and loving others, you are receiving love from God directly and through others – this is a flow of the Spirit. I love to say, don’t stop the flow. Keep loving, helping, serving, and giving what you get from God, and God will continue to give you more, increase your capacity and bless you with a life full-filled of the things of God – love, peace, joy, and so much more.
Great post, Ken. I wish we would recognize more frequently what you point out here: While you are loving God and loving others, you are receiving love from God directly and through others – this is a flow of the Spirit. I love to say, don’t stop the flow. This is such a good reflection that loving God and others establishes this flow and rhythm of love that we also benefit from.
It is invaluable to understand that the expressions and offerings of love to God and other people increase charity and affection in our own hearts and contribute to an environment and community that flows with love. We all want to be a part of that.
In reading Matthew 22, verses 37-40 stood out to me and this is what I got from them: I am to love the Lord with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. This doesn’t mean I am to love myself before I can love anyone else; it means, in the same way, I take care of myself and am concerned about my own interests, I should take care and have concern for the interests of others. This is hard to do in this respect as I don’t always love myself and take care of myself. It is much easier for me to love others for God and not myself. It is easier for me to focus on others than focusing on me.
Lately, I struggle with doing the right things for myself in drawing closer to God and spending time with Him. If the life of God is real in my life, it will show by the presence of this love for God and others. I have always had a servant’s heart. I do try to do unto others, as they would do unto me.
I am to love those that I am in community with, and with those that I am not. I am to love on everyone I come into contact with, for God. If I draw closer to God and He flows through me, this will flow through to others. It will also help me to learn to love myself more, by reading and believing what He says about me.
Wonderful commentary. Your post contains so many great truths about that passage, Kathy. This really stood out to me because I think this idea is widely misinterpreted and misapplied, but you accurately sum it up here:
I am to love the Lord with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. This doesn’t mean I am to love myself before I can love anyone else; it means, in the same way, I take care of myself and am concerned about my own interests, I should take care and have concern for the interests of others.
Jesus knows that it is inherent within human beings to look out for ourselves first. He is saying, as you rightly point out, that we should love others above and beyond the love we have for ourselves. That is truly indicative of life in Christ, when we serve, care for, and love others above our own interests because it is so natural for us to look out for ourselves.
This week, God gave me a song from Matthew 22 called “Faith”:
I’m having faith in my Jesus, having faith and standing together
Having faith in our Jesus, trust and believe in knowing he is standing with us.
When we have broken hearts, He can make them whole
That’s what faith is about.
His love is so great.
We have faith that all things are possible.
I’m having faith in my Jesus, having faith and standing together
Having faith in our Jesus. Amen.
The Lord wants us to have faith in Him and when we go to Him, he can mend our broken hearts. His forgiveness sets us free and He gives us the strength to do all things when we do it with Him.
This is wonderful as always, Alma. I think one of the most powerful things that faith does for us is contained in this line from your song:
His love is so great.
We have faith that all things are possible.
It is amazing that the gift of faith through the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to believe in the omnipotence and supremacy of God in all things and to accomplish what we see as impossible with our finite minds. What an empowering and joyous gift to go through this life with especially when things seem overwhelming.
Matthew 22:37-38 says, And Jesus replied 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 first and greatest the most important command.
Let me ask you a question, think about this, what makes God happy, sad, what blesses His Heart? It’s from loving Him with our whole heart, our soul, and our mind. Every day is an opportunity we get to have to get to know Him and what God loves. Today is a new day. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime, knowing we have been chosen, we’re saved, and we get to be with Jesus forever and ever. What is really huge is the willingness and desire to learn what He loves which connects us to His heart.
What’s crazy is, the Pharisees and Sadducees knew the scriptures by memory and still didn’t recognize Jesus in front of their faces why because their hearts were disconnected from him. If we’re not connected heart to heart then we’re growing apart. So what does God love the most?
People, it’s that simple, Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost as He said in Luke 19:10. When we’re seeking God with our whole heart we’re getting what we need from him, we are learning to know what he likes and what he doesn’t like. The way we live and treat others is a reflection of the way we love and treat father God. Our attitude towards others should look different than the world.
When we wake up it’s a new day we need to choose to know more and more about what God loves, what makes him sad, what makes Him sad, I think it’s when people don’t want to listen or respond to him. Loving God, I believe, is connecting to His heart and serving him through His love.
Great exegesis and commentary on this passage, Heidi. Your point about the Pharisees and Sadducees knew the Scriptures by heart but still missed Jesus is sobering and convicting. We have to be careful with knowing the Word but not living the Word. Just because we know a thing, doesn’t mean we are that thing.
As you said, we have an opportunity every day to allow the Holy Spirit to help us not only know God’s Word but apply it to our hearts and live it out. This was beautifully expressed by you in these thoughts about walking and life with God:
Every day is an opportunity we get to have to get to know Him and what God loves… What is really huge is the willingness and desire to learn what He loves which connects us to His heart… If we’re not connected heart to heart then we’re growing apart.
I love this song First by Lauren Daigle: https://youtu.be/bDgoU9hK5Cs because it goes so well with Matthew 22:37.
Putting God first brings out love. Putting God first before you bring your needs because he already knows what you need. He just loves it when you love to spend time with Him first and always. He is for us and with us 24-7.
Thank you, Father God, because you are always faithful!
Thank you for sharing this, Heidi. It is such a beautiful song and it definitely compliments that Scripture passage. This is my favorite part given the picture it paints of where our heart should be when we approach God. We are to seek His heart before we ask for things out of His hand.
I will bring my heart
Before I lift my cares
I will lift my arms
I wanna know You
I wanna find You
In every season
In every moment
Before I bring my need
I will bring my heart
And seek You
Thank you for sharing too! You have a wonderful gift to bless others with words of encouragement and I know you bless the Father’s heart. I hope you feel extra blessed today.
Thank you so much, Heidi! I am honored to be able to encourage everyone. You all are a blessing and inspiration to me. May God pour out His richest blessings on you.