God Wants All of It

December 9, 2025

Consider this: Does Jesus mean it when He says these words?

And when one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, he recognized that He had answered them well and asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31 (see Deuteronomy 6:4, Leviticus 19:18)

Let’s assume that you believe Jesus means it. What does the Lord require us to know and to do? There are some clear implications:

A.     Jesus upholds the law.

B.     We are to worship God completely and holistically; with all of ourselves.

C.    Because of this, we are to love others in a manner consistent with God’s law.

Flowing from these implications are many, many applications. But there are three which are inseparably tied to one another.

·       First, you must know God. You can’t love with your heart, soul, and mind unless you know Him. How do we know God? His Spirit illuminating His word. The full counsel of scripture is God’s direct word to us. Nature and our consciences can be helpful, but they are subjective and must be interpreted through the Bible.

·       Second, you must serve God. You can’t say you love Him and not do anything about it. Notice that the bar isn’t building a church, penning an award-winning gospel song, or teaching Sunday School. It is loving Him with all your strength: whatever measure He’s given you.

·       Third, you must love and serve others. You can’t say you love God without obeying Him through showing His love to people according to His word. Every person is created in the image of God. He instituted families, churches, and societies for image bearers to reflect His love to one another.

Another thing to consider: Which of these three is most important?

Jesus Himself says in Mark 12:29 that loving God is the foremost commandment. This doesn’t mean that loving others is unimportant. It means that loving God rightly is the ordained means by which we are to properly love one another. God is first; others are second. But this doesn’t mean others aren’t deserving of love. They are; as long as it is not the love that a jealous God expects for Himself. If you love a person with the kind of love reserved for God, it is idolatry. You are seeking to please men more than God.

This all entails that we have to obey both the foremost and the second commandment fully. We can’t pick and choose. We cannot rest on our finitude, or proclivities, or our preferences to pick if we want to love God with our minds or love God with our strength or love others.

Rephrased, God wants our lives to be defined by sound doctrine and sincere devotion. Not one or the other, but both. If you’re proud that you're doing one really well, you’re doing it all wrong. If you pick one because it is more comfortable or more culturally acceptable, you're telling Jesus you don't believe what He says in Mark 12. Jesus says we are to love God will all of it – with all of us.

We strive for humble certainty in doctrinal precision, and we seek to serve others as the only reasonable response to those truths. That is the Lord’s word in the new covenant, that is the Lord’s word in the old covenant. Faith without works is problematic (James 2:14-26). Works without faith is a problem, too (Ephesians 2:8-10, 2 Peter 3:16). The Lord has equipped you through unity with Christ, the indwelling of the Spirit, and the word of God to obey Him in all of it.

The Lord has the divine prerogative to ask for obedience in doctrine and devotion - in all of it. He is quite clearly God of everything; God of all of it (Genesis 1:1, Job 38:4, Psalm 110, Romans 11:36, Ephesians 1:22, Colossians 1:16, Revelation 4:11, etc. etc. etc.).

If one doesn’t share that sentiment, they’re most certainly worshipping something. But that something is not the Triune God who has revealed Himself as the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 1:8, 22:3). This Lord commands His creatures to love Him with all they are. This Lord commands His creatures to love one another with a love defined by Him. This Lord expects His people to daily meditation on sound doctrine and daily serve with sincere devotion.

It can be both because “it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). It can be both because “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will, by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21).