Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Love - "I Command You"?

Recently I have been studying the topic of love in the Bible. What a topic….   
I usually just begin with a word search and try to read every scripture related to that word, in this case the word 'love'. The first few references of the word love in the Bible are related to a man’s love for a woman. The first mention we have of people loving God is found in Exodus 20 where Moses receives the Ten Commandments. In the first commandment, God speaks very clearly about those who love or hate Him.

Exodus 20:4-6 (NASB) "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."
This verse is the first of Ten Commandments. Although this does not say “YOU WILL LOVE ME” as a straight command it is clearly implied. In Deuteronomy, Moses is giving his final instructions and reiterating these commandments to Israel, we read;

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (NASB)  "Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! 5"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might."
This is a familiar verse because Jesus refers to it while being questioned about the "greatest commandment”.  This verse is clearly a command; “you shall love the Lord!”  I bring this up because much of what is taught or understood about love doesn’t seem to fit within the context of a command. I mean, can you command love from someone?  Do we understand why God commanded us to love Him? Is there context that we are missing to understand commanded love? These are questions that loom in my mind when reading these verses. Here is a final verse that seems to help me understand all of this a little better;
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 (NASB)  "Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?
Moses tells Israel that God requires from them several things, among them is “love”.  Once again we run into the concept of God commanding or requiring love from us.  I find it interesting that at the end of this passage Moses mentions that those things which he is commanding them to do is “for your good”. Verse 13 is the key to help us understand why God would command/require us to love Him. I don’t know about you, but it helps me a bit to know why.
Let’s briefly look at the context of both Exodus and Deuteronomy. God had called Moses from the wilderness to deliver His people Israel from slavery in Egypt. Moses confronts Egypt’s leader until he finally allows the people to go.  All of Israel leaves Egypt (the Exodus) with many great signs and wonders performed by God along the way. God delivers them from Egypt with the hope to bring them into a blessed land that he promised to their ancestors. Israel did not know the Lord at this point. They had been slaves in Egypt for near 400 years. During that time it’s safe to say they knew very little of the God of their ancestors (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). It’s possible that Israel had heard some stories and the promise God had given concerning the land of Canaan which was meant for them. But it seems that they did not personally know God as their ancestors did. The first thing God did while Israel was in the wilderness was establish His commandments among them (the 10 commandments). This was important because for 400 years Israel was enslaved to a people and culture that worshipped over 400 different gods. The Egyptian culture was very immoral, evil and stood against the character of YAHWEH. The 10 commandments were given in some ways to help Israel know YAHWEH’s standards. These commandments provided them the insight needed to know God and His ways while separating them from all that they had known in the worship of other gods.
The command to “love God” was given to teach them. Israel knew nothing about God (or very little), and their understanding of love and worship was skewed from their experience in Egypt. All of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy is to help them know YAHWEH. It reminds me of teaching children. Children have very little knowledge or understanding, but they learn very quickly. When you teach children you have to be specific and often the first lessons you teach them are related to what not to do. Creating boundaries of what’s right and wrong while you explain to them why is almost always how it works. The first command was a benchmark for Israel. They needed to understand that loving God is what they were created for and all that He did for them gave them more than enough reason to want to do so. 
Deuteronomy 10:13 (NASB) says and to keep the Lord's commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good."
God commanded them everything for their “GOOD”. Our God does everything out of love and goodness. Even though he commands us, it is still for our good! That is amazing to me. We are children and he is our father. He is not just setting rules; he is establishing truth for us. The truth is, He made us to love Him and when He says “you shall love me” it is because we need Him to tell us in this way. God has proved His love for us, which should warrant a response of love from us.  However, when what He has done somehow loses its power in us to respond back, we have His command which instructs our heart in truth. When we read “you shall love me”, it will quickly remind us of all that He has done which will draw out love in our hearts for Him.  Even our capacity to love has come from Him, the one who has called us to love Him back. May we give all of our love to Him without reservation.  Lord, we love you. Teach us to love you more…..
In other posts I will explore what love is and how we actually love God. Stay tuned....

Ben Dixon
Director - Ignite Global Ministries
igniteglobalmin@gmail.com

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