Love God and Live for Him to the Fullest!

"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.’” (Matthew 22:37-38)

Jesus states few times that we must love Him to the fullest like Mark 12:30 and Deuteronomy 6:5:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

Jesus states these because He wants us to live for Him as well to have an eternal life, as He is the way and the truth (John 14:6); for He says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) This is why Apostle Paul states:

Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. (1 Corinthians 8:6)

“The thief” that is stated in John 10:10 is Satan, the enemy of God who is also the prince of this world. This makes our enemy as well, because He leads us to sin and wants to tear us apart from God, our heavenly Father (Ephesians 4:6) and into pieces. However, we are lucky that Jesus came into this world to save and rescue us from sin, so that we may have eternal life in Him. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) He did these things by crucifying Himself on the cross. This is because of His abundant mercy and grace:

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (Colossians 2:13-15)

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Therefore, let’s keep thanking God for sending His only beloved Son into the world that we might not perish and have eternal life in Him (John 3:16-17) While we are thanking Him, let’s also take hold of that eternal life, which has been given to us; by abiding into the Holy Spirit, whom God poured into us to help us in the walk with Him (John 14:15-17,26-27) At the same time, let’s overcome the world, for “we know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (John 5:19)

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)

This is how we know that we live in him [Jesus Christ] and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 John 4:13, 2 Peter 1:3-8)

I believe that Jesus had it right when He states: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment’” (Matthew 22:37-38), even though I am not higher enough to correct Jesus, for He is the Lord and Savior. This is because without loving and living for Him (1 Corinthians 8:6) to the fullest, we would be quickly-falling and giving up as followers of Jesus Christ. Then we have no reason to live anymore, since 1 John 5:19 and Romans 6:23 state: “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one, for the wages of sin is death…”