Matthew 22: 37-38 You shall love the Lord your God

God shows us great love throughout our lives. We must respond to God’s love in the way Jesus describes in the verses we are considering in this article found in Matthew chapter 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.

In your mouth and in your heart

For those who become part of God’s adopted family there is the offer of salvation and the promise of eternal life. Whether a man or woman will receive salvation in the future depends on whether he has allowed God to change his heart. In other words, it depends on whether God has changed his (or her) inner self.

The Lord God changes the heart through His Word (in the Bible).

“For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. Deuteronomy 30:11-14

These verses are saying that the Word of God is very accessible for all people. It is not difficult to bring it into your life so that you can act on it.

Verse 14 says that the Word is in your mouth. It means that you can use the Word to speak words confessing your faith. It also can be used so that you preach to others through the words you say.

Verse 14 also says that the Word is in your heart. That means you have an inner conviction of the value and worth of the sacrificial death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. You understand what the actions of Jesus did for each one of us.

The apostle Paul in Romans chapter 10 and verses 8 to 10, talks more about this. He proclaims it as word of faith (the heart) which we preach (the mouth).

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 

So we as believers must hear the Word of God and then go and do it by confessing your faith and then preaching to others.

With all your heart

This brings us to the central verse we are considering in Matthew chapter 22 and verse 37 (also Deuteronomy 6:5).

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

The emphasis here is on the total involvement of the of the heart of the inner man. Our love for God must, like our love of the brethren, be true. It cannot be an outward act without feeling but rather one which comes from our inner most self. It something we deeply feel.

King David understood what it meant.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; Psalm 9:1

It is the pure in heart (those with complete devotion) who shall see God.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

What does it mean to “see God”? It means to know Him and to become like Him. It means to demonstrate His characteristics in our own lives. To change ourselves so that we have characteristics which are like God. We are to act like God by forgiving others with our heart.  Only a heart in tune with its Maker can respond in this challenging way. It is this whole-hearted love of the Lord and sincere attempt to reflect the glory of His character that Paul writes about:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, Romans 6:17

The motivation for the obedience is the effect of the Word of God on the inmost being of a man (or woman). Along with this is the desire that the Lord Jesus influences every aspect of that person’s life.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Ephesians 3: 14-17.

The heart refers to that inner self through which we experience and savour life and which is the basis of all our beliefs and the motivation of all our actions.

A mark of affection for our creator

In order to show our affection for our creator we are urged to comply with the commandments of God.

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. 1 John 5:3

One of the commandments is that we believe the teachings of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 1 John 5:1

The love of God for us

All belief and faith leads back to God because God is love, and Jesus became the visible expression of that love so that men and women might see and believe. Jesus was “the word made flesh” that “dwelt among us”,….he was the manifestation of the love of God. The teachings of Jesus help us to obey the commandments of God.

We cannot fully comprehend the great love of God for his children, for whom He provides all things necessary for their existence upon the earth. Everything that we receive in our daily lives comes from a merciful God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 1 Corinthians 1:3

This Divine love is very deep and completely beyond our limited understanding. This is the love that is ever ready to forgive repentant men and women, and to receive them back as His sons and daughters.

Our love for God

We, in turn, must respond to God’s love in the way that His Son commands:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37

We show our love for God when we keep His commandments and seek to do His will in all the circumstances of our lives. We also show our love for our God when we obey the teaching of Jesus to love our neighbour as ourselves.

If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. 1 John 4: 20-21

Sometimes we need to think carefully before we take a course of action. We need to think what God would want us to do.

We have the assurance that the love of God is always there and that He will never forsake those who obey His commandments and put their trust in Him.