Dear BPCWAians, After spending many months studying the first of all the commandments on Tuesday nights, I felt that it is important to summarize this series so that we do not lose sight of this commandment. It is a commandment that encapsulates our obedience of the first half of the Ten Commandments, what we should gladly obey till the day we leave this earth, and then perform it perfectly in heaven!

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:29-30).

“The Lord our God is one Lord”. This informs us why this is the “first” (ie of highest priority and position) of all the commandments of God – because the Triune God whom we believe in and worship is the only “one” living and true God. It means that He alone is the Supreme Creator, the Highest Almighty One, and the Perfect Ruler of all. Hence, He alone is worthy of worship, honour, and service of all creatures. Naturally then, there is none like unto Him and He alone deserves the supreme love and wholehearted devotion of every living heart. He is not a proud, desperate, and lonely despot who frantically expects men to love Him, and so needs to command us to do so. The High King of the entire universe has the right to such an expectation. Simply because of Who He is, every person owes worship to Him, even if He did not choose to save any!

To love our God “with all thy heart”. The heart often refers to the seat of the will, emotions, and passions of man. Love is not just merely about emotions. To love with “all” the heart includes, importantly, engaging the human will. We are called to choose to love our God. So, loving God is not about whether we “feel” loving sensations towards Him. Love can be commanded because it is the act of the will. This part of the command tells us to exercise a determined choice and act based on that choice – to direct our passions towards God. The emotions may follow thereafter because of that constant choice. In times of temptations and persecutions, we may not “feel” like loving God, neither might we have “feelings” of desires for Him. Yet, we can still love Him. How, you may ask? By exercising our will and choosing to remain faithful to Him, ie by obeying Him regardless of what we are feeling or not feeling. This is why our Lord Jesus consecutively repeated, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (Jhn 14:15), “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me” (Jhn 14:21), “If a man love me, he will keep my words” (Jhn 14:23), and “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings” (Jhn 14:24). Our heart makes choices in times of temptations and it goes in every direction. In loving God, we consciously pray and choose to “unite” the straying parts of our heart to focus on walking in God’s command, “Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.” (Psalms 86:11). Christ reminds us that “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt 6:24) This Great Commandment calls us to once and for always choose only our Lord to sit on the throne of our hearts.

“With all thy soul”. The Bible often uses “soul” to refer to the innermost being, ie the real you as an individual. Who you truly are inside will determine your thoughts, choices, and actions, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee” (Prov 23:7). Your soul is fundamentally your character. For example, if you are a money-minded person, then whatever you do will have money as the underlying reason. To love God with all your soul means to be a person whose motivation for all things in life is driven by and for God alone. Your pursuits, choices, and aims are controlled by the Word of God. Your entire being’s sole desire is to please Him, the lover of your soul. Moreover, you cannot be such a person unless your convictions are deeply rooted in God’s Word and you are so strongly convinced of them that no one else’s ideas matter more than God’s Word. With such a soul, nothing can pressure you to disobey Him. The world has the ungodly saying “to sell your soul”, which is “to abandon one’s values or morals in return for some highly desired benefit, typically success, power, wealth… do whatever they need to in order to get that thing, doing things that they considered wrong before”. It is an expression of the extent to which they will go to attain the thing they love and want to have in life. The child of God is to love God with all his soul, ie be willing to abandon his desires of the world in order to achieve this objective of loving his God in life and let nothing steal it from him. How far will you go to love God with your soul – to spend time with Him, to serve Him, to get to know Him more, never to be unfaithful to Him, and never to compromise in convictions? This must be the Christian’s fundamental character. He is not satisfied with a lukewarm love towards God and does not accept a “nominal” Christian walk. Is this your current character? If not, pursue it till it is. That is loving God with all your soul. God willing, we will summarize the last two aspects “with all your mind” and “with all your strength”. Let us not just be hearers, but doers of what have learnt so far about this first of all the commandments.

De 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Yours in our Lord’s service,

Pastor