“You shall love the Lord your God…” (Matthew 22:37)
Bible Reading: Matthew 22:34-40
We are looking at the general shape of Jesus’ life as the pattern we need to conform to as those who have been taken up by him into himself.
This does not mean, remember, that we are to do everything that Jesus himself did. Jesus was Jesus, the Son of God in human form. His work was uniquely his own, and not ours. Our lives are to be lived where we are now, today and every day, as Jesus would live them if he were us. They are to take on the general shape of his life without trying to copy it in every detail.
One way, we have seen, that our lives are to take on the shape of his is in our awareness of the spiritual realm, the world that centres in God himself and in his active rule over all things. That is what we are to understand as the kingdom of God. Jesus was supremely aware of that, and so must we be if we are to be like him and follow him.
But more than just being aware of that kingdom, Jesus loved his Father and was utterly devoted to doing his will. This, perhaps more than anything else, defined the shape of his life. It was a life totally and utterly devoted to his Father and doing his will. And that must characterise our lives as well if they are to take on the shape of his.
One of my favourite Bible passages in this regard is the summons God gave to his people through Moses in the old covenant era: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13).
No Israelite before Jesus ever embodied this ideal perfectly. But Jesus did. His entire life centred upon loving, serving, fearing and obeying his Father. He didn’t seek his own interests nor did he care for the praise of men. His only goal was to bring glory to his Father by doing his will.
This is what he had in mind when he spoke to the teacher of the Law who came asking what the greatest commandment was in the Law. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus answered him (Matthew 22:37). This, along with the duty to love our neighbour as ourselves, is a summary of all that the Law and Prophets required, he added (v. 40).
Following Jesus, being one of his disciples, calls us to conform to this aspect of his life. Through his grace – constantly supplied – we are to make God, and the love of God expressed in wholehearted devotion to him, the core characteristic of our lives.
To Think About:
- Do you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
- Is this what shapes your life more than anything else?