Getting The First One Right

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. Mark 12:30

When it comes to following God, there is no middle ground. A half-full glass and a half-empty glass may sound different, but both tell the same story — something is missing. God does not work with half measures. He wants us to love Him with all of our heart; to love His ways with all of our soul; to love His Word with all of our mind; and to love the work of His kingdom with all of our strength. We need to be all in, for nothing less than 100% will do.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. Matthew 6:24

We shouldn’t be deceived into thinking that we can walk God’s path and our own simultaneously. There is no comfortable middle lane. A choice must be made.

But here is the wonder of it all — God never asks of us what He has not first given Himself. He held nothing back from us. In His true shepherd nature, He goes before us in everything, leading the way. The apostle John reminds us of the fullness of God’s love:

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9

It is the reality of this truth that leads John to his simple but profound conclusion — ‘we love because he first loved us.’ (4:19) We cannot manufacture wholehearted love for God through willpower or discipline alone. It flows from something far deeper — from allowing the fullness of His love to saturate every part of who we are. When we have truly experienced being fully loved by God, loving Him fully in return becomes not a duty, but a desire.

When we get the first and greatest commandment right, the second will follow naturally.