Tag Archives: greatest commandment

July 4, 2025 · 6:02 AM

Serving God

Jesus said that one of the greatest commandments was to love the Lord with Al, your heart, soul, mind and strength. When we love Him in each of those areas we will serve Him with all of them. Who or what we love, we serve. The attitude and posture of our heart results in action in our lives. Serving God is about submitting every area to Him out of our love for Him. Are you doing what He wants or what you want in your life? Remember, you can’t serve two masters. The fruit of your life shows who you are serving. Take a moment to reflect on which areas you need to submit to the Lord and serve Him with.

Here are some Bible verses on serving God:

1. Does this sound as if I am trying to win human approval? No indeed! What I want is God’s approval! Am I trying to be popular with people? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10 GNT

2. Jesus answered, “The scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’”

Luke 4:8 GNT

3. If it is unacceptable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Joshua 24:15 AMP

4. We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors.

2 Corinthians 6:7-8 NLT

5. We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.

Luke 1:74-75 NLT

Photo by Luis Georg Müller on Unsplash

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October 10, 2023 · 5:43 AM

Motivated By Love

Think of some things you’ve done and accomplished. What was the motivation behind them? What drove you to accomplish them? I’ve been motivated by money in order to get something done. I’ve been motivated to be the best so much that it pushed me to my limits. I’ve been motivated by wanting to prove people wrong. I’ve also been motivated by my pride so that I was seen and praised. However, to be motivated by love is completely different. That causes us to go above and beyond. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus told them that it was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Then He said that the second one was to love others as we love ourselves. Love for God and others should motivate our actions.

In 2 Samuel 9 King David asked if there was anyone left alive in the House of Saul whom he could show kindness to because of his love for Jonathan. They told him that one of Jonathan’s sons had survived, but he had become crippled while being carried from his home once word came out that the king and Jonathan had been killed. This son, Mephibosheth, had been living in fear since he was young that the new king would find him and kill him to end the line of Saul. When he was summoned to the king, I’m sure he was terrified as he arrived. However, love casts out fear, and what he discovered was a man motivated by love and not fear of losing his kingdom. He was invited to stay there and sit at the kings table all the days of his life. This act of love from David pulled Mephibosheth from a life of hiding and obscurity into the life he was born into. He lived a life of abundance from then on and David was blessed because of his act of love.

1 Corinthians 16:14 says, “Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us]” (AMP). We love because God loved us first. We are to be motivated by that love in everything we do. Going back to my initial question, what’s the motivation behind what you’re planning to do? If it’s anything other than love, it’s time to reconsider how being motivated by love would change your actions. It’s not easy to do everything with a love that unselfishly seeks the betterment of others. We have to fight our selfish nature that wants to do things that are motivated by making you feel better, that benefit you and or bring attention to you. That is the opposite of what the Bible is asking us to do. Our motivating factors should be a love that honors God and benefits Him or honors and benefits others. It’s not easy, but it’s right.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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August 16, 2021 · 5:58 AM

Having An Excellent Spirit

I love watching the Olympics. The people who go there have not only dedicated countless hours to their sport, they have honed their skill to be one of the best at it in the world. Their excellence is a byproduct of their rigorous schedule and dedication to what they do. To be that excellent at something, you have to have natural abilities, but you also have to do things consistently to keep improving day after day. To them, it’s not enough to just be good at it, excellence is what drives them. It got me to thinking not just the aspects of being excellent at a skill, but also about becoming excellent in spirit. Can I become more excellent in my walk with Christ? What does that look like? What do I need to be doing on a consistent basis to become more excellent spiritually?

In my quest, I found Daniel in the Old Testament. His nation had been defeated by another country and he had been taken as a hostage from his homeland. Instead of complaining about all the unwanted changes in his life, he continued to remain faithful to God in prayer. He also did whatever the king of the new country asked of him as long as it didn’t interfere with his faith. This attitude caused him to be noticed. Daniel 6:3 says, “Then Daniel became distinguished above all the other high officials and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him. And the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom” (ESV). Daniel was excellent in his abilities, but he also excelled in his attitude. He didn’t let his circumstances affect the performance of his responsibilities. He excelled internally and externally. That’s something that appeals to me because I’m pretty good at letting my circumstances affect the level of excellence I provide at times.

In Mark 12:30, Jesus affirmed the greatest commandment to us when He said, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” This commandment calls us to be excellent in our love for God in all phases of our being. We can be excellent in our spirit through loving God with our very being, through our spirit, through our thoughts and through our actions. Being excellent in spirit is finding ways to serve God and love Him even through the most difficult circumstances and letting it show in our outward actions and attitudes. Because Daniel served God this way, he was set apart. Even when those who were jealous of him tried to get him killed, he still served God faithfully. As a result, many others put their trust in God. Think of the kind of impact you an I can make when we fully dedicate ourselves to loving and serving God with excellence despite the things we’re going through.

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

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July 9, 2020 · 5:30 AM

God’s Image

One day, there was a religious leader who wanted to trap Jesus. He asked Him which of the commandments was the most important. Jesus knew what was in his heart and replied that we must love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. What the leader wasn’t prepared for was what Jesus said next. He said, “A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself” (NLT). He knew if we could do these two things, we could fulfill the law.

The first one seems easy enough. We are to love a perfect God with everything in us. The second one, that’s equally important, is the tough one because people are imperfect. People do things that make us mad, offend us, hurt us and drive us nuts. Yet Jesus is telling us to love them with everything in us as much as we love God. Why would He put that pressure on us? Why can’t we just love God and go to Heaven?

I believe God wanted us to learn to look past each other’s faults to see what He sees in them. Genesis 1:27 tells us what to look for. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Each of us are made in God’s image, even the people you can’t stand. God put His likeness in each one of us and it’s up to us to learn to see it the way He does.

If you look for the best in others, they will look for the best in you. If you can see God’s image in them, you can learn to love them because we can easily love God. It’s tough sometimes to dig through their layers to find it deep inside them, but His image is in there. When we learn to see Him in others, and to help them see His image in themselves, we begin to see the world through different lenses. We begin to know as we are known and also to fulfill that second, but equally important commandment. Look deeper into to others today to find God’s image and fulfill the law of Christ.

Photo by Naassom Azevedo on Unsplash

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July 15, 2019 · 5:48 AM

Gaining Internal Confidence

The heart is known as the seat of our emotions. Our emotions dictate our words and actions. You can tell a lot about what’s in people’s heart simply by listening to them and watching their actions. When I hear people talk down to themselves or beat themselves up, it bothers me because it’s a reflection of how they truly feel about themselves. I went to compliment a kid recently about how well he performed and he replied, “I was terrible. I’m no good. I don’t know why I did it.” My heart broke because he’s already let his self talk destroy his confidence. I tried to speak life into him, but more than anything, he needed a change in his heart to readjust his thinking.

Proverbs 14:26 says, “Confidence and strength flood the hearts of the lovers of God who live in awe of him, and their devotion provides their children with a place of shelter and security” (TPT). It’s amazing how much we can accomplish when we have confidence and mental strength. So many of us struggle with an internal picture of who we are. We must remember that we are made in God’s image. The greater picture we have of God, the greater picture we will have of ourselves. A.W. Tozer said, “What comes into your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you.”

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, your mind and your strength. To love Him with all of our heart, we need to know Him more. The more we know Him, the more we will live in awe of Him. It’s no coincidence that He listed the heart first. Everything stems from there: our relationship with God, our relationship with ourselves and our relationship with others. If you need confidence in any of those areas, it starts with knowing God. You get to know Him more through reading the Bible, prayer and sitting quietly in His presence. Learning to do these three things won’t just change you, it’ll have a generational effect as well.

Photo by Fares Hamouche on Unsplash

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May 1, 2017 · 5:37 AM

The New Commandment 


In Matthew 22, some Pharisees asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was. In verses 37-39 Jesus responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the most important commandment. The second most important commandment is like it: Love your neighbor as you love yourself” (GNT). Jesus was very clear that we should love God first and then our neighbor. 

On the night before the crucifixion, at the Last Supper, Jesus gathered His disciples around for one final teaching. In John 13:34 Jesus said, “And now i give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples.” Jesus was adding that now we have to love other believers as well.

Sometimes the hardest people to love are within the walls of our churches. We find it easy to go out and love the homeless, the orphan, the destitute and the broken, but that’s not how Jesus said they would know we are Christians. Are those things necessary? Yes! Those are our neighbors. What’s difficult for so many of us is to love the person on the pew next to us or in the church across town. And that’s who Jesus commanded us to love on His last night. He knew we would struggle with this.

Jesus once said, “A house divided can’t stand.” Since that time, the enemy has tried to divide the Church. We’re divided into denominations and now we split churches because we grow to hate our brothers. If we’re going to be effective in loving our neighbors, we’ve got to love each other first. We need to put down our grudges and love each other instead. Until we get that right, how will the world know we are truly His disciples? If you’re holding a grudge, slandering or angry against another believer, you’ll find it’s difficult to obey the first two commandments effectively. Learn to love your brother (or sister) in Christ whether you think they deserve it or not.

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November 5, 2015 · 6:14 AM

God’s Image

  
One day, there was a religious leader who wanted to trap Jesus. He asked Him which of the commandments was the most important. Jesus knew what was in his heart and replied that we must love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. What the leader wasn’t prepared for was what Jesus said next. He said, “A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself” (NLT). He knew if we could do these two things, we could fulfill the law.

The first one seems easy enough. We are to love a perfect God with everything in us. The second one, that’s equally important, is the tough one because people are imperfect. People do things that make us mad, offend us, hurt us, and drive us nuts. Yet Jesus is telling us to love them with everything in us as much as we love God. Why would He put that pressure on us? Why can’t we just love God and go to Heaven?

I believe God wanted us to learn to look past each other’s faults to see what He sees in them. Genesis 1:27 tells us what to look for. “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Each of us are made in God’s image, even the people you can’t stand. God put His likeness in each one of us and its up to us to learn to see it the way He does.

If you look for the best in others, they will look for the best in you. If you learn to see God’s image in them, you can learn to love them because we can easily love God. It’s tough sometimes to dig through their layers to find it deep inside them, but His image is in there. When we learn to see Him in others, and to help them see His image in themselves, we begin to see the world through different lenses. We begin to know as we are known and also to fulfill that second, but equally important commandment. Look deeper into to others today to find God’s image and fulfill the law of Christ.

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June 16, 2014 · 7:39 AM

Extravagant Love

During my pastor’s Father’s Day sermon, he talked about how kids pick up a lot of their early habits from their parents. After the sermon, he called all the men to the front to pray over them. I had my son back in service with me by this point so I took him down there with me. While my pastor was speaking to us, my son was watching him intently and then said, “Amen!” I laughed and thought about the message. When he prayed over us, I heard my son say, “Yes, Lord.” He’s starting to pick up a lot of habits by watching me. He’s imitating what he sees me do. It’s important that I give him a good example to follow.

When you look at Ephesians 5:1-2 in the Message Bible, it speaks to us as children and how we are to be imitators of Christ. It says, “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.” It’s pretty clear message what God wants us to do.

The first thing is that we choose who we imitate. The people we spend the most time with are the ones who we become most like. We end up liking the same things, going to the same places and even speaking the same way. It’s part of life. You become like those you run with. Your parents told you that line and you’ve told it to your kids. It’s such an important lesson for every stage of life. If we want to be more like God, then we have to spend more time with Him. If we want to see what God does, we have to be around Him and we have to be paying attention.

Mostly what God does is love. How would our lives be different, if most of what we did was to love others? How would the world be different? God’s message to us over and over is simply to love others. Jesus said that was the greatest commandment. In I John 4:7-8, John said that the person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God. In I Corinthians 13, Paul gave us all the attributes of love including that it was patient, kind and that it didn’t keep score of the sins of others. We typically apply those to romantic love, but they are to be applied to Christian love toward others too.

You and I are called to love and we have been shown the greatest example of it. It’s time we started to imitate our Father and demonstrate the kind of love we’ve been shown. The people around us who need God’s love the most don’t need another person pointing out what’s wrong in their life. They need someone who will love them in spite of it. They need someone who will love the me extravagantly. They need someone to show them what selfless love really is. You have experienced it from your Father. It’s time we started imitating it to those around us. Who in your world needs that kind of love today?

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October 8, 2013 · 7:44 AM

Loving Your Neighbor

How would your life be different if you really cared about others? Think about it for a second. We say we care about others, but do our actions reflect that? Right after Jesus told us what the Greatest Commandment was, He said, “The second one is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Loving your neighbor is as equally important as loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. So why is it easier to love God that way, but not our neighbor?

I’m the same as you. I’ve got neighbors I like and ones that I don’t. They mow their grass at inappropriate times, they host parties until 4 AM, they don’t keep up their yards or houses and they aren’t friendly. Jesus didn’t allow for those excuses here. He didn’t say love them if they’re easy to love. He said love them as you love yourself. If you would do something for yourself, you should be willing to do it for your neighbor. You should put their needs above yours.

I know this isn’t easy and I’m guilty of not loving my neighbors as I should. If we’re serious about our faith and we’re serious about seeing God’s Kingdom grow, we’ve got to shift the focus from ourselves and onto others. In Luke 10:29, someone asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” He then told them the parable of the Good Samaritan. When He finished, Jesus asked, “Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” They replied, “The one who showed mercy.” Then Jesus told us to go do the same.

Loving our neighbors, as illustrated in that parable, isn’t just those who live next to you. It’s anyone you see or come across who is in need. We are to love them and do for them what we would do for ourselves if we were in that situation. I saw a man yesterday sitting outside the 99 cent store playing guitar with his case open for money. I asked my wife, “Why is he sitting outside the 99 cent store and not in front of a store where people who have money are?” Her reply was, “He knows they carry cash.”

The more I think about it, the more I realize that the people going in there are more likely to give to him than someone at an expensive store. Even though they only have a little, they’re more willing to give. Most people who have money aren’t willing to let go of it easily. Jesus illustrated that in the Good Samaritan as well. The people who should have helped the man who was robbed, walked by on the other side of the street. The one who no one thought would help, put the man on his own donkey and walked to the next town. He took care of the stranger’s wounds. He paid for his food, lodging and medical bills. He loved his neighbor the way we’re supposed to.

What neighbors in need has God put in your life that you’ve passed up constantly? Who can you show mercy to today? I think there’s no better way to show God we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength than to love others who need it most like we love ourselves. How would your life change if you really loved others that way? How would your relationship with God grow if you did? Open your eyes today to see what neighbor God puts in your path and then love them the way you love yourself.

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October 2, 2013 · 7:52 AM

Love With All Your Soul

And you must love The Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. – Mark 12:30

If loving God with all your heart was about being passionate again in your relationship with Him, then loving Him with all your soul is about loving Him with who you are. I looked up the Greek word “soul” used in this scripture to help give context and the word was “psyche”. It includes your conscious and subconscious self. I believe Jesus was telling us that our love for Him should permeate our entire being. It should be second nature to us.

I’m reminded of the woman who came and wept at Jesus’ feet and then dried them with her hair. People were watching in shock as she did it. They couldn’t believe Jesus was allowing this sinful woman to touch Him. He turned to them in Luke 7: 44-47 and told them that they had not offered him water for His feet nor greeted Him with a kiss. He then made the point that the person who is forgiven most, loves most and whoever has been forgiven little loves little.

When Jesus comes into our lives and forgives us of sins we have committed, it should change who we are and how we love. II Corinthians 5:17 tells us that anyone who belongs to Christ becomes a new person. Our old life is gone and a new life begins. The extent to which we realize what we’ve been saved from is how much we will love God with who we are. If Christ has forgiven us, then He has saved us from the same fate no matter how big or how small our sins were. We should love Him unconditionally based on that, but Jesus made a point to show that the size of our debt has to do with the size of our love.

Many of us have been forgiven for a great deal of sin. Some of us have been forgiven a small amount if sin. Either way, we have all sinned and were condemned to hell. Now that we have been forgiven, how do we express that love with who we are? Have we let that forgiveness come into our psyche and change us as a person? Have we become a new person that is different from the old one? God doesn’t just want our passion, He wants who we are to love Him. He wants our love for Him to emanate from our very being.

Letting His love change our psyche means we have to let go of the past that is tied to our old psyche. You can’t change what you’ve done in the past, but you can let Him forgive you of it and you can forgive yourself for it. When you’ve learned to do that, you will see that who you are will begin to change. You will become more like He is and grow into the person He wants you to become. Let go of the old life today. Embrace the new life He is giving you and love Him with who you are. That’s loving God with all your soul.

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