"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 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." (Matthew 22:36-38)
Yesterday was my second wedding anniversary. Rachelle and I had the opportunity to go out on a date without Daniel and spend some alone time together at an elegant restaurant in downtown Louisville. We had a fantastic time. We talked and exchanged gifts and just marveled at how God had brought us to the point that we were at: two years into marriage and more in love now than the day that we exchanged vows.
When I come to a special occasion like this (or with any occasion, for that matter), I am extremely unsatisfied to have little emotional response. I want to love Rachelle more and more with each passing day. I genuinely desire to be more satisfied by her and such a realization honors her. It shows that she is the most important woman in my life and to know her and love her more deeply as the years go on greatly lifts her up. It does not make her more valuable than she already is, but expressing and having greater affection for her certainly does magnify who she is to me and to those around her.
This reality is extremely important in my life, but it is only the penultimate reality; Christ is the ultimate reality. I do not think I should have a "steady-as-she-goes" mindset when it comes to loving Jesus. It is not a wise thing in the temporal sense or reflective of eternity to have the same knowledge, the same affection, and the same glory in the presence of Christ day in and day out. It certainly honors Christ no more than it would honor my wife to lack a growth in affection. And how much greater is Christ than any marriage or relationship!
There are dangers in coming to the great and first command of Jesus in Matthew 22, and one of them is to completely glaze over the "all's." Love the Lord, Jesus says, "with all of your heart with all of your soul and with all of your mind. Make him more than just someone you love--make him THE person you love supremely and with the utmost amount of affection. You may ask, "Is it not enough that I just love him?" It's good that you love him for that is what separates sinners from saints, but the short answer is no. Make your soul and mind means to accomplish the end of treasuring him more. And make that horizontal realtionship be the bedrock that holds firm all others so that you can indeed do what he says next, that is, "Love your neighbor as yourself."
That is what honors Christ and what glorifies him. Just as with my wife, God does not have more value by you valuing him more, but his being and worth is magnified like a telescope would magnify gargantuan celestial bodies. How can this be done? Put your eyes to the lense of the Scriptures. Look at the faithfulness of God, the mercy of God, the justice of God, the love of God, and all of those attributes shown in the Person of Christ (Hebrews 1:2). When our knowledge of him thus increases, so does our joy. And when our joy in God increases, he is glorified and fully pleased and we are satisfied.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy (Colossians 1:9-11).
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