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God is real. He is great. He is so great, we have only the tiniest inkling of how great He is. And He is good. And He is righteous. Everything He does is right, because that is who He is. That’s His nature. Not only is He our Creator, when we joined the rebellion of the fallen angels, and sinned a great sin, and forfeited life, He became our Redeemer.

Such a great and glorious Being is worthy of our love. And yet the world does not love Him.

It’s right for us to love God. It’s good for us to love God. It’s beneficial for us to love God. Things work right when we love God. Things don’t work right when we don’t love God. A world that does not love God will never function properly. A world that does not love God is doomed.

God is worthy of our love. When He was asked by an expert in the law, “which is the greatest commandment?” Yeshua replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.

The first and greatest commandment, the most important thing that divine wisdom has commanded us to do, is love God with every aspect of who we are: with our heart – our innermost being, with who are way down deep at the core of who we are; with our soul – with the essence of who we are, with out life-force, with our life energy; with our mind – with our thinking, with our thoughts, with our thought-life; and with all our strength – with all the power and energy God has given us. We are to love God and love Him completely, and love Him before everyone and everything else.

People can love many things. People can have many loves. God must not be one of our loves. He must be the love of our life.

Anything or anyone we love more than God is an idol for us, and the Word of God is clear: You shall have no other gods before me. Our love for the Lord must come before all other loves.

Our love for God must come before the world and everything in it; before money; before people – even before family; even before our own lives.

Our love for God must come before the world and anything in it. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. When John commanded us to not love the world or anything in it, he didn’t mean our beautiful planet and the things in it like the people and animals and plants and trees and rivers and lakes and seas. “Do not love the world” means do not love the fallen, corrupt system in which we live with its corrupt values.

John elaborated on what he meant by the world: For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world.

 

The world is characterized by the lust of the flesh: there are legitimate pleasures of the flesh: intimacies between a married man and woman; eating good food, drinking good wine, beer and other adult beverages; enjoying good art, music, dance, sports and other wholesome entertainments. But those pleasures need to be done in moderation, not in excess; and pursued within God ordained boundaries – like sex being reserved for marriage between a man and a woman. God wants us to enjoy legitimate pleasures, but enjoy them the way He intended.

And, we don’t want to live for pleasure, or put pursuing pleasure before pursuing God. That too is the lust of the flesh.

The world is characterized by the lust of the flesh. And the world is characterized by the lust of the eyes: The desire for more and more things; never being satisfied with what we have; never being content – always wanting more – more money, more possessions, bigger things, better things.

Those who are engaging in the lust of the eyes should know that the pursuit of things rarely brings contentment. There is always more to possess. Even if they get everything they want, most still are unsatisfied. “I have all I want and I’m still unhappy.” We need to learn to cultivate contentment. If we know the Lord and our needs are being met – if we have food and clothing and a roof over our heads, we should be thankful.

The world is characterized by the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. And it’s characterized by the pride of life: the desire for fame, honor, position, authority over others. We don’t want to seek the honor given by people, but the honor given by God. We don’t want position and authority to be praised by others, but position and authority – if given by God – to serve people and serve God.

God and the world are competing for our love. We can only love one. If we love God, we will turn away from the values of the world. If we love the world, we don’t love God.

Which do you love – God or the world? The answer is the one which occupies your time and talents and treasures and thoughts. Do you love God or the world?

Our love for God must come before money. Yeshua said: No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

We need money to live, but we don’t want to live for money. We need to make money, but we don’t want so much of our time and energy devoted to making money that we don’t have time and energy to serve the living God.

Let’s consider downsizing our material desires and our living standards so we don’t want or need as much money – which will free us to serve God more.

Our love for God must come before people, even before family. Yeshua said: Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. God designed us to love our fathers, mothers, sons and daughters. However, He also designed us to love Him more than them. The Creator/creature relationship is the most important relationship. The Lord is our first priority. He is the one we are to give our first and highest loyalty.

The story of the binding of Isaac teaches us this: God tested Abraham. He said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Loving God means putting God before the people we love the most, even if it’s an only child.

And then there’s the thing we really love the most – ourselves. We love ourselves. We care about ourselves and serve ourselves and do what is best for ourselves. We work to advance our interests, our plans, our goals for ourselves, our priorities. We love ourselves.

Yeshua told us to be different, to love God and serving God more than loving self and serving self. He said: Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. And He said: Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Hating your life means putting your interests second and putting Yeshua’s interests first. Loving your life means putting your interests first and putting Yeshua’s interests second.

And what are Yeshua’s interests? Yeshua is interested in the salvation of people. He came from Heaven to Earth to save people. His name, Yeshua, which means salvation, reinforces this. You will call His name Yeshua because He will save His people from their sins. Saving people from their sins was the focus of Yeshua’s ministry.

It’s true that He did other things: He taught people. He helped people. He healed people. He did other miracles. But the ultimate purpose of all the teaching and helping and healing and miracles was to help people know that He is the Messiah, the One who is able to save us from the things we can’t save ourselves from – Satan and the demons, sin and the sin nature, death and Hell.

And save His people from their sins He did – by living a perfect life, dying to reconcile us to God, dying which enabled our sins to be forgiven; rising from the dead; ascending to the right hand of the Heavenly Majesty and sending His Spirit to those who become loyal to Him.

And Yeshua’s mission to save people from their sins is incomplete. Yeshua is still interested in saving people. But now He is at the right hand of Power, and is saving people through us.

Putting Yeshua’s interests before our interests means we are to proclaim the message about Him and the salvation He brings to everyone we can.

Yeshua is also interested in building His Community. After we are saved, we need to become like Yeshua. We need to grow to spiritual maturity. That can only take place in Messiah’s Community. Therefore, we must be active, involved members of a local community of Yeshua-followers. We must learn and grow and be transformed. But, being an active, involved member of one of Messiah’s communities is about more than our own, personal growth. We must help the community grow. We must serve our brothers and sisters in the community.

Yeshua’s interests: Continuing His mission of saving people from their sins by proclaiming the message of salvation to everyone we can, and building His Community.

Do you love your life? Or, do you hate it because you love Yeshua’s interests more than your own? Whose interests are you prioritizing? Whose interests are you serving? Yours, or Yeshua’s?

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.

What does loving God this way look like?

It’s looks like trying to please Him. Pleasing Him means pursuing a pure, holy, set-apart life. Pleasing Him means resisting temptation.

Loving God looks like giving God the firstfruits – the first and the best of our time, our talents, our treasure, our thoughts.

It looks like putting Yeshua’s interests before our interests.

God is real. He is great. He is good. He is righteous. He is our Creator and our Redeemer.

He is worthy of our love.

It’s right for us to love God. It’s good for us to love God. It’s beneficial to love God. It’s destructive to not love God.

We’re commanded to love God with every aspect of who we are, with the essence of who we are, and love Him fully and completely.

Our love for God must come before the world and everything in it; before money; before people – even before family; even before our own lives.

Loving God means serving Yeshua’s interests of Gospel proclamation and being active, involved members of a local community of Yeshua-followers and working hard to help it grow.

Let’s pray:

Lord, help us love You the way we should.

Lord, if there are things or people we love more than You, we confess they are idols. And we know it’s wrong to be an idolater. But Lord, we love our idols. Give us the grace to want to forsake our idols. And give us the grace to actually do so, to forsake out idols. Amen.