The First and Great Commandment — Loving God for Who He is

Or do you love God for what He gives or does

Moses and the Commandments | Image from Cecille B. de Mill’s The Ten Commandments

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him,” Which is the first commandment of all?” And Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark:12:28–31, AKJV)

Loving God for who He is

There’s a great difference between loving God for who He is and loving God for what He does or gives. The first is that we love God because He is our God, the One who created us and allow us to have our being. Though we fall short of His glory, “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, AKJV). Therefore, when we acknowledge that fact and love Him for who He is, all our beings will depend on Him. We will do whatever He says and commands. Even if we are not pleased with what He asks us to do, we will still obey because our God says so.