The Great Commandment
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"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. This is the first commandment." Mark 12:30.
Of all the precepts of Jesus, this is, undoubtedly, the chief. What it enjoins is love to God — even the highest, warmest love of which we are capable. True love to Him cannot be a secondary or subordinate feeling. We cannot love Him sincerely — unless we love Him supremely. He is not loved at all — unless He is loved above all. "Love," as one remarks, "when creatures are the objects of it, should, like ordinary rivers, be kept within banks and bounds; but when God is its object, it should overflow like the Nile, or spread itself like a sea without limits."
That God is worthy of our supreme love, appears from two considerations:
The first is, what He IS in Himself. He is the perfection of moral beauty, the source and centre of all excellence, infinitely holy, just, and true. Whatever is lovely and of good report in created beings — is only a dim shadow of His infinite attractions; nothing but feeble rays from His ineffable light and glory.
If we are for ascertaining what the blessed God is — let us ask those who know Him best. What are the feelings of the angelic legions who surround His throne, and of the spirits of the perfected just who have been feasting for ages upon His smiles? They know full well that their highest admiration of His matchless character falls unspeakably short of what it deserves, and that their affection, if intensified to a degree of fervency ten thousand fold greater than what they have realized in their most ecstatic moments — would be completely disproportionate to His infinite claims!
But, in addition to what He is in Himself — we are to bear in mind what He has DONE for us. To love Him, on the former ground, being more unselfish, is, of necessity, a higher feeling — than that which takes the form of devout gratitude for the benefits we have received from His bountiful hand.
Some have contended that love of this latter kind is essentially spurious, being based upon mere selfish considerations, and that God can only be truly loved on account of His intrinsic perfections. Others, again, have argued that such absolute unselfishness is impossible, and that the emotions of the heart cannot be called forth by any abstract virtues in however high a degree they may appear. We believe that both of these classes have fallen into error. Imperfect as we are, our nature is evidently capable of such a state of mind as is repudiated in the second objection. We all feel sentiments of admiration and love while contemplating true nobility of character — although we personally have never profited by it.
As to the former opinion, it is in direct contrariety to the whole tenor of the sacred volume. The penitent woman in the house of Simon loved much — because she had much forgiven. And the Savoir, far from stigmatizing it, in consequence of its being prompted by such a feeling, warmly commended her in the presence of the whole company. "I love the Lord," is the language of David. Why? "Because He has heard my voice and my supplication." "We love Him," says John, not simply or chiefly on account of what He is in Himself — but, "because He first loved us." It is evident that He deserves our love on both grounds; whether we regard Him as the "altogether lovely," in His own ineffable nature, or as the fountainhead whence every blessing flows, both of providence and grace — He has the strongest claims upon our highest and holiest affections.
How blessed is the promise, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart — to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live."
"O Lord, let my heart be thus circumcised. Abundant reason have I to mourn over the feebleness of my love to You; but as You can break the hardest heart — so You can warm the coldest heart. O shed abroad Your love within me by the Holy Spirit, and enable me to manifest its constraining influence, by doing Your will and devoting myself to Your glory!"
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