O How I Love Thy Law – First And Great Commandment

The great and first commandment

Matthew 22.37, 38

And he said 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 great and first commandment.”

John 21.17

He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

So, do you?

Loving someone involves some very obvious practices. Seeking to be with him, enjoying every moment together, paying keen attention to his every word, enjoying his friends, talking with him about others and with others about him. These are some of the ways we can determine how much we love God. The great and first commandment instructs us to grow in love for God until we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This week we have explored some of the avenues along which we might travel in an effort to improve love for God. Which will you follow? What’s your plan for growing in love for God? All the Law and the prophets are all about this. Shouldn’t we be, too?

Pray

Help me to love You more, O Lord! Give me a strategy, a plan, and a willing heart to grow in love for You and to encourage others to love You more as well.

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.