"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 

Jesus said to him, "‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  "This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ "  - Matthew 22:36-39

It is easy for us to be caught up in peer pressure and reverse the order of these two commandments; we sometimes love our neighbors in a way that is contrary to loving God. While the “golden rule”, treating others as you would like to be treated, is a high standard of behavior, there is a real temptation to become an enabler or even codependent if the other person is dabbling in behavior that is outside of God’s Will. 

By putting our focus on loving the Lord, understanding and following His Will, all other things in life take on a proper perspective.

Let’s explore these important words.

Lord

When we accept Jesus to be our savior, we are also acknowledging Him as our Lord. To have a Lord is to relinquish control of all things, important and trivial, to Him – He is ruler of our life. The first of the Ten Commandments is this: “You shall have no other gods before me.”

"Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” - Matthew 7:21

Your God

To love the Lord YOUR God is a defining moment in a person’s life. To accept Him personally is to meet God face to face and acknowledge His superiority in all things, yet still being privileged to have a personal relationship with Him. God is always present and close. He is not “the man upstairs” hovering around in outer space, He resides in the heart of every believer, seeing and feeling everything we do.

Love

Loving God is to be active – not just a warm fuzzy feeling. Loving God involves commitment and loyalty. It involves trust and respect, knowing and sharing, giving and surrendering of yourself. It is THIS love that the second command is modeled after. God demands that He be loved. It is His first commandment. 

With ALL

A person's heart, soul, and mind are focused upon something: self, possessions, the world, the flesh, power, fame, a person. God demands that we focus our whole being upon Him. We cannot hold back anything in our love for God. The key word here is ALL.  We are called to glorify Him in ALL that we do and ALL that we are.

“What a heartbreak it would be to live an "almost" Christian life, then "almost" get into heaven.” Greg Laurie

With all your Heart

The heart is the seat of man’s affection, will and devotion.

Is there anyone on earth you love more than God? (Matthew 10:37)

Is there any item or treasure on earth you put ahead of your love for God? (Matthew 6:19-21)

Is there any word on earth (including the US Constitution) that carries greater weight than the Bible? (John 14:23-24)

With all your Soul

The soul is seat of person’s consciousness, their life and essence. We are called to love with all the life and awareness in our being.

"He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” - John 12:25 


With all your Mind

The mind is the seat of intellect, reason and understanding.

“…do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12: 2


As we engage the people and the world around us, we must always be aware of God’s presence and urging in our lives. If we choose to deviate from the straight and narrow path He has laid out for our life, we are choosing to intentionally throw water on the fire of our love for Him.

Love others

When we love our neighbors before loving God, we miss the opportunity to TRULY love them by sharing the word of God and demonstrating our first love for Him.

The Bible says we are to “speak the truth in love.” – Ephesians 4:15.  The greatest sign of love I ever received was a preacher who lovingly told me that I was a sinner and was going to go to Hell if I did not repent of my sins. He showed me the savior, Jesus, who loved me before I even knew Him.

It is Jesus’ loving words from John 8 that saved an adulteress, when He forgave her and said, “go and sin no more.”


Pastor Jay Merritt

"But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." - Jesus Christ (Mark 10:6-9)

Every human being on the face of the earth was created by the miracle of one male cell coming in contact with one female cell. As I look out my back window, I see bright, male birds paired with neatly camouflaged female birds. In the wild, females nurse their young, while males stand nearby to protect and provide.  In nature, this is the way it has always been. 

Marriage has long been considered as the natural order for the continuance of a healthy civilization.

In the United States, the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage as the legal union of one man and one woman, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife. The law passed both houses of Congress by large majorities and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on September 21, 1996. In a statement at the signing, Clinton said “I have long opposed governmental recognition of same-gender marriages and this legislation is consistent with that position.”  Parts of the law have been challenged in Federal Court, but it has not been overturned. Section Two of the law reserves the right of each state to determine how each state will define marriage. 

The week before the election in November 2008, candidate Barack Obama told MTV he believes marriage is "between a man and a woman" and that he is "not in favor of gay marriage." In 2011, after he was elected president, he instructed his Attorney General to not defend the law of the land – DOMA.

In North Carolina, where I reside, the statute 51-1.2, dated 1996, declares “Marriages between persons of the same gender not valid.” Similar laws in other states have been overturned by judges who consider them as unconstitutional. For that reason, the common people of North Carolina have signed petitions and rallied to place the decision on a public ballot defining marriage “to be between one man and one woman” as an amendment to the state constitution.

 
It is a very rare occasion where the general public has an opportunity to make law. This vote will take place in North Carolina, May 8th, 2012. Once on the constitution, judges cannot deem it unconstitutional.

Unfortunately, a recent poll reveals the condition of the hearts of Americans—44% of young people and 33% of older Americans are now a part of a growing trend in the belief that marriage is obsolete (http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/11/18/the-decline-of-marriage-and-rise-of-new-families). Our adversary, the Devil, wants to destroy God’s precious gift of marriage. He knows that if he can break up or redefine marriage, he is destroying what God has created, as well as adversely affecting all those in the household. This cascading effect flows out of homes into schools, the workplace, places of worship and the government. For Christians whose homes are destroyed by broken marriages, the damage affects how people see God through His broken children.

Marriage is one of the few institutions on earth created by God.

When we get married we promise to love and cherish, until death do us part. It’s a commitment. Yes, there should also be accountability. That’s why we have all of our friends and relatives come and witness our wedding. We become committed to the whole family. And when we start our own families, we are committed to our children. Whether we like it or not, our spouses and our children hold us accountable. We’re also accountable to God, especially if we are married in a church. In Ephesians 5:21 it says we are to be “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” That’s commitment with accountability! 

It continues in Ephesians 5: 25 saying “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Now that’s commitment in the picture of sacrificial love. This is not love based on performance, feelings or emotion. It is love, based on commitment, based on a promise.

Jesus put an exclamation point on the importance of marriage, when He revealed His miracle working power at the wedding in Cana. No matter where you are: pre-married, married, un-married, divorced, or in a relationship outside of God’s will - Jesus can be the miracle you need in your life. He can turn a bitter or tasteless relationship into a sweet and joyful one.

Pastor Jay Merritt