And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
2 John 1:6

When asked which was the greatest commandment of all, the Lord Jesus answered that there were two: the first was “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength,” and the second, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Then He said, “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two.”

In other words, God’s moral Law, all His Commandments, and everything the Prophets said in applying and explaining those commandments, are simply God’s description of what He meant by commanding us to love. To love as God defines love means to live our relationships with Him and with our fellow man according to His commandments.

We are naturally so twisted in our understanding that we would easily redefine love to mean something very different than what God had in mind. The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” My heart is capable of subtly redefining God’s commandments to rationalize my sin and justify any behavior, so long as I get what I want.

One of the most common rationalizations is to say that so long as I feel warm and fuzzy inside when I think about God, or about my neighbor, any kind of behavior is okay. The warm fuzzy feeling means that it  must be right; it feels like God’s approval: “How can it be wrong, when it feels so right?”

So God found it necessary to give us the details. Loving God means that I won’t worship idols or take His name in vain. Loving my neighbor means I don’t do him harm or steal his stuff, lie about him, or seduce his wife.

Be careful about the subtle reasonings of a sin-darkened understanding. Let God’s Word guide your thoughts, your words, and your behavior.

Lord Jesus, thank You for forgiving the times I’ve substituted my own feelings or reasoning for the clear light of Your Word. Lead and guide me now, as I leave those wrong decisions behind and follow You. Amen.

Pastor Dan Giles