There are many things to learn about and to do, but none are more important than loving God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the first command to obey is to love God. In Matthew 22:36-38 Jesus told a lawyer that the first and great command in the law was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 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. This is the first and great commandment.<\/p> Matthew 22:36-38<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Loving God is the first command because, if you love God, you will do everything else that He expects of you. If you love God, you will love others, and loving others fulfills the law. Romans 13:10 says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love [is] the fulfilling of the law.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
In the book of Revelation, the first sin Jesus rebuked was the church’s loss of love for Him. This one sin is so great that Jesus threatened to remove their authority as one of His churches even though they had done everything else right. In Revelation 2:2-3 Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for the good things they did, saying,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
However, after commending them, Jesus says in Revelation 2:4, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Why is leaving our love for God so serious? Because if the first and greatest command is to love God, then the first and greatest sin is failure to love God. You will not commit any other sin until and unless you first break the first and great commandment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To nurture your love for God, ask Him for spiritual guidance to increase your love for Him. Study His Word, participate in Bible studies, and fellowship with church friends who love God. If loving God is the most important command, then it should be the first thing we do every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the first and greatest command is to love God, then the first and greatest sin is failure to love God. You will not commit any other sin until and unless you first break the first and great commandment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,15],"tags":[31,30],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God.jpg",1920,600,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God-480x150.jpg",480,150,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God-768x240.jpg",768,240,true],"large":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God-1024x320.jpg",1024,320,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God.jpg",1536,480,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/love-for-God.jpg",1920,600,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Dr. Patrick Briney","author_link":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/author\/prbriney\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If the first and greatest command is to love God, then the first and greatest sin is failure to love God. You will not commit any other sin until and unless you first break the first and great commandment.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patrickbriney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}