Loving faith
Moses taught Israel what the first and great commandment was: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” – Deuteronomy 6:5. Israel’s obedience was to arise from a relationship based upon love. God taught Abraham, our father of faith, what it was to …
Moses taught Israel what the first and great commandment was: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” – Deuteronomy 6:5.
Israel’s obedience was to arise from a relationship based upon love. God taught Abraham, our father of faith, what it was to believe in Him with all his heart, therefore he “was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20).
The first commandment was the fountain out of which the others would naturally proceed. It has its foundation in the relationship between God and man. With God, as the loving Creator, and man, made in His image as the object of that love, it could never be otherwise. Man finds his life, destiny and happiness in only one thing; loving God with all his heart and all his strength.
Moses added: “The Lord had a delight in loving your fathers.” (Deuteronomy 10:15 in the Amplified Bible).
All our religion, all our faith in God, and all our obedience to Him, our entire lives are to be inspired by one thought; we are to love God with our whole being.
Yet God does not expect something from us in our own strength. If we allow Him, He says in Deuteronomy 30:6, “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
Colossians 2:11 says God the Father will do this circumcision without hands by the circumcision of Christ on the cross. This was the first indication of the new covenant. Later, the prophet Jeremiah foretold of the law being written in their hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit (Jeremiah 31:33). In the new covenant, God enables us to love Him with our whole being when He says in Romans 5:5, “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
This makes the grace of loving God with all our hearts most sure and blessed!
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