Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Matthew 22:37
You have probably seen the list of rules that is posted in many businesses. Rule #1 states that the customer is always right. Rule #2 states that when the customer is wrong, refer to Rule #1. These are very important rules, and any business that ignores them does so at their peril. Even so, it might be possible for a business to ignore these rules and survive. It is not possible to break the rule that the Lord Jesus recites in today’s text and survive.
Have you broken this great rule that the Lord Jesus quoted? So have I. So has everybody that you and I have ever met. In fact, we must admit that we are unable to come near to keeping this great commandment. This is serious, because the Lord Jesus, three verses later, declares that the entire law and the writings of the prophets are focused on this first great commandment. Without the keeping of this great commandment, we are in violation of every other part of God’s requirements. This commandment establishes two great truths: you and I are guilty before God and His law, and only One has ever kept this great commandment perfectly. It is His keeping of the commandment that holds our attention today.
The commandment insists on loving the Lord our God with all our heart. Our hearts are fickle and unstable, but not so the heart of the Lord Jesus. As the heart speaks of the emotions, we find He was unwavering in His affection for His Father. At no time did anyone else ever usurp that affection or alter it in any way. The love between the Father and the Son is beyond understanding. And it fulfilled the commandment perfectly.
The commandment insists on loving the Lord our God with all our soul. The selfish world in which we live knows little of commitment. Even happily married couples can waver in their commitment to each other. But the commitment that binds the soul of the Lord Jesus and His Father can know no ebb or flow, no change or limitation. The soul of the Lord Jesus is, and always was, bound to His Father with a love that perfectly meets the commandment’s demand.
Nobody knows the Father as the Son does. And with that full knowledge and understanding, the love between Father and Son is infinite. Here we see that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the commandment to love the Lord His God with all His mind.
We cannot keep the most important of all commandments. But we rest in the assurance that our Saviour has brought us into the shelter of His perfect keeping of that commandment. -Jim MacIntosh