“The First and Great Commandment”

1. “The First and Great Commandment”

2. Many people turned off by hypocrisy in religion have longed for genuine Christianity.

3. Genuine Christianity will only be found in people who truly love the Lord with all their heart, mind, and soul!

4. Matthew 22:34-36 (KJV) 34 But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. 35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

5. Matthew 22:37-40 (KJV) 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

6. Total and Complete Love for God. • To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

7. Luke 10:27 (KJV) And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

8. Total and Complete Love for God. • To love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. • Our love for God is to exceed our love for all others including “self.”

9. Matthew 10:37 (NKJV) He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

10. John 12:42-43 (NKJV) 42 Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

11. Luke 14:26 (NKJV) If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.

12. How is it Possible to Love God This Much? • “Circumcision of the heart” must first take place.

13. Deuteronomy 30:6 (NKJV) And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

14. “Circumcision of the heart” is the cutting away of sin, the removal of sin from the heart - i.e. forgiveness of sins.

15. Colossians 2:11-12 (NKJV) 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Himthrough faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead…

16. Colossians 2:13 (NKJV) And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

17. Christ circumcises our hearts (takes away the sin) creating within usa new and clean heart to love and obey God!

18. Ezekiel 36:26 (NKJV) I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

19. How is it Possible to Love God This Much? • “Circumcision of the heart” must first take place. • God’s love, demonstrated by His grace in Christ, enables us to love Him with all our hearts!

20. Ephesians 2:4-5 (NASB) 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), - cf. 1 John 4:19

21. 1 John 4:9-11 (NKJV) 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved usand sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

22. Daily meditation upon the love of Godwill enable us to love Him in return and compel us to live the life of a Christian.

23. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NKJV) 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

24. Why Loving God is the First and Great Commandment. • Our love for God is the foundation to everything we do as Christians. • Loving God is “the first and great commandment” because everything else we do depends on it!

25. Mark 12:32-34 (NKJV) 32 So the scribe said to Him, "Well said,Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He.33 And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."34 Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him.

26. Obedience is to flow from our love for God! Deuteronomy 11:1"You shall therefore love the LORD your God, and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments.

27. Obedience is to flow from our love for God! John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” John 14:24a "He who does not love Me does not keep My words…”

28. Why Loving God is the First and Great Commandment. • Our love for God is the foundation to everything we do as Christians. • Loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind CHANGES EVERYTHING!

29. Love for God is the most powerful motivation there is for obeying God! Deuteronomy 10:12 (NKJV) And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

30. Faith that saves is “faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). To be saved, let us obey the first and great commandment!“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”