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THOU SHALT LOVE the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (Matthew 22:37)
An Epitome Of Christian Duty
This passage is an epitome of Christian duty and comprehends all that God requires of man, including all the duties enjoined in the Decaloguelove to God and man, comprising the whole of experimental and practical Christianity. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. They are iterated again and again in both Testaments. Three of the evangelistsMatthew, Mark and Luke, give us the text.
To recover fallen man from his alienation and corruption, and secure his observance of this commandment, was the great design of Moses and the prophets in the earlier dispensation and of Christ and the apostles in our dispensation.
First In Importance
This is the first and great commandment. It is first in importance, for it comprehends all others. It is first and greatest, not only in comprehension, but in dignity, excellence and duration. It is the statute law in the moral universe, binding equally on all created moral beings from the highest celestial intelligences to the lowest of the human race.
In this great, first commandment, our whole duty is made a love service. How different this from the common error that Christian duty is tedious and burdensome! In the experience of the devoted heart, it is more of a delightful charm than a reluctant constraint. Our Lord declared His yoke to be easy and His burden to be light. John says, His commandments are not grievous.
Easy And Delightful
Christian duty may appear hard and intolerable to corrupt human nature, but it is easy and delightful to the renewed heart. How could it be otherwise, as Gods service is a good service, a useful service and a profitable service! It is not merely tolerable, but delightful. It is an assisted service, hence an easy service. It is a rational spiritual, love service.
The divine requirements are never malevolent, capricious, selfish or arbitrary. They are necessary, being based in the nature and relation of things, and originate in, and harmonize with, infinite wisdom and love. They accord with our highest interests and happiness and never conflict with them.
The Devoted Soul
To the devoted soul nothing is more agreeable than that which God requires. Faber expressed it thus;
I worship Thee, sweet will of God,?And all Thy ways adore,?And every day I live I seem?To love Thee more and more.
?John Wood - a preacher in the Wesleyan tradition, wrote the bestseller book, Perfect Love, published in 1878.
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