Commanded to love God with all heart soul, mind and strength!

We are commanded to love God with all heart soul, mind and strength (Mark 12:30); indeed, this is His most important commandment. He also commands us to love our neighbor as we love our self.  There is a very good reason for that; loving God first. If we did not love Him first, we could never love our neighbor as our self. 

We often forget that God commands His creations. We are also commanded to go out and do as He did…spread the Good News which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is about what He did for us and why... because He loves us!

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20.

We need to be with the Father always and to the very end of the age; because, like Jesus who faced trials and turned to the Father, we must do the same in this yet fallen world.  We read in the scriptures that Jesus often preferred to be with His Father in order to recharge…”Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” ~ Luke 5:16. “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake” ~ Matthew 13:1. After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone ~ Matthew 14:23.

Loving God first is the most important commandment. How else could we love others and or begin to understand what Jesus meant when He said, “I never knew you, depart from Me”?  Look around, most people spend too much time with busy things that look like nice churchy things that supposedly have to be done. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me,” ~ Matthew 7:22-23. 

The Father commands us to love Him; because He loves us! Everyone can receive this gift and share it. Accept His gift and share the good news …the gift of forgiveness for repentance of sins and the promise of eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ. 

You might wonder then why are some people so caught up with love your neighbor as yourself first? ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ What is that we do for our brothers? We share the living bread and living water; and, we do it because we love God knowing he loves us.

To those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink,…Matthew 25:40-42.

Does that mean we should be serving in a soup kitchen somewhere? Yes and no. Yes, we are to love our neighbors as our self and their needs must be met. No because, God comes first in our heart, soul and mind and His Word comes first lives; this is living bread and living water and this is for everyone, this is what we share!

Depart from me is said to those that He never knew because they chose not to know Him personally! He did not know them because they did not seek Him, knock and have the door opened to them. They did not love God, they did not know nor share His Word, the bread of life and the living water. “So, our neighbor too had nothing to eat (no living bread) and nothing to drink (no living water). For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” ~ Romans 14:17.