Priorites - God

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Matthew 22:37 ESV
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.
Matthew J. Round 3: The King Elevates Love for God and People (22:34–40)

Jesus drew his answer from the most memorized and recited passage in all the Jewish Scriptures: Hear, O Israel! The LORD our God the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4–5).

Jesus quoted the Septuagint almost verbatim, but he substituted mind (dianoia) for the similar sounding “might” (dunameos). We are to take this list as an emphatic way of saying, “Love God with everything you are in every way possible.” But it was not without significance that our Lord deliberately substituted “mind” here rather than some other term. Christians need to take a lesson from this. We should learn to think critically and biblically.

Look at what God told Moses
Exodus 20:1–2 ESV
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me…
Exodus 20:4 ESV
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Exodus 20:5 ESV
You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 20:7 ESV
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Exodus Third Word/Commandment: Speak Yahweh’s Name Respectfully and Honestly (20:7)

The primary meaning of “misuse the name of the LORD” (nāśāh šēm yahweh, lit., “raise up Yahweh’s name for no good”) would appear to be invoking his name as guarantor of one’s words. Examples would include promising someone something “by Yahweh,” meaning: “I guarantee you that my promise is true, or Yahweh may kill me or otherwise punish me if I don’t keep my promise,” or giving legal testimony with the meaning of “I swear that my testimony in this legal matter/before this court is true with the guarantee that Yahweh may kill me or otherwise punish me if it isn’t.” In other words, the most basic, core idea behind this commandment is the prohibition of perjury.39 We must remember, however, that the commandment is worded generally enough to encompass any misuse of Yahweh’s name—from making light of it or overtly mocking it, to speaking about Yahweh in any way disrespectfully, to using it as the theophoric element42 in a personal name under social pressure to have one’s family “look orthodox” when in fact their beliefs were pagan/idolatrous.

Yahweh’s name signified his essence. In any culture, modern or ancient, a name is a verbal symbol for a person or thing, and the ancients in particular obviously appreciated the way names connoted the very value, character, and influence of a person or thing. To speak Yahweh’s name was to recognize his awesome power and holiness and even to invite his response to one’s particular situation at the moment. Those who had not obeyed Yahweh might well fear even to mention his name out loud lest he respond by appearing in some fashion among them. Thus Amos 6:10 describes those wishing no contact with Yahweh’s judgment against them as saying, “Hush! We must not mention the name of the LORD.” Jesus reinforced and clarified this commandment with regard to making false promises (swearing falsely/uttering false oaths) that invoked God’s name by banning the practice of invoking anything as a guarantor of honesty altogether, including any substitution for the divine name in an oath (Matt 5:33–37; 23:16–22; cf. Jas 5:12), thus virtually eliminating any kind of oathtaking and requiring one’s word to be one’s bond in any promise.

Loving God means He is number one in my life!
He wants to be first…
Before I post about it… Talk to Him.
Before I make an emotional decision… Seek Him first.
Before I start my day…
Loving God means loving His commandments…
Deuteronomy 7:9 ESV
Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
God’s commandments reveal his character…
If you love me keep my commandments…
We diminish the meaning of love when we view it as simply an emotion or feeling, and therefore subject to change. I may love someone because they are kind to me. If they stop being kind, I no longer love them, because my love was simply a positive feeling based on my current circumstances. Love is more than that; it is a decision of the will to act in light of a deep, abiding concern and affection for the object of our love.
When the Bible places “loving God” in the context of a command, it becomes the galvanizing force (strength) for not only how we feel about God (heart), but inspires our thoughts about Him (mind) and stimulates our desires for Him (soul). Loving God motivates our every decision and empowers our very lives.

We Are to Love God with an Exclusive Love

Matthew 6:24 ESV
“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. You cannot serve God and money.

We Are to Love God with a Surpassing Love

Matthew 10:37–39 ESV
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

We Are to Love God with an Obedient Love

John 14:21–24 ESV
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
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