The Lord Jesus while He lived on earth stated to His disciples two commandments that we should follow in this church era. These commandments are listed in Matthew and in Mark.
Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And th esecond is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.
Mark 12:29 Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And your shall love the Lord our God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. 31 And the second like it is this: You shll love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater thatn these.
We are to love the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. According to the Jewish teachings, the heart is considered the inner man where our spirit resides. Our soul is where our personality — our true self resides. The soul is our mind, will, and emotions. Our mind is the intelligent — our thoughts. Yes, mind is in our soul. It is considered twice because our mindset is so important in loving God, people, and our selves. Then there is strength — it is the physical aspect of our being — the body. In otherwords, we are to love the Lord God with all we have — our whole being – spirit, soul, and body!!
But how do we do that???
John 14:19 If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Simply put, we obey Him and keep His commandments. Yes, the ones listed above but also the Ten Commandments that was given to Moses. Why? Because in Matthew above it says that all the Law and the Prophets (meaning the Old Testament) hang from these two commandments. The Ten Commandments are just a explanation of how to love God, others, and self.
When we keep His commandments, we are obeying God. Therefore, obedience to God is vital. It expresses our love to Him. When we obey every law like giving, we are honoring Him and placing ourselves in a position to be blessed and favored by Him. When we keep His commandments, we are strengthen because we are connected to Him through the vital Vine Jesus.
John 15:5 I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. …9 As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you: abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
I John 3:24 Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
Keeping the commandments of God, maintains us in the love of Jesus and the Father. We abide there, we dwell there in that place of His love.
1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Gpd loved us so much that He sent His Son Jesus to be the propitiation or sacrifice for our sins. Therefore if He loved us that much we should love one another and then God abides with us. If we abide in love then we abide in God and know Him.
The Scripture says that everyone that loves is born of God and knows God. But he who does not love does not know God. Therefore we need to learn how to God, ohters, and ourselves. For if we do not get to know God and love Him, we will not be known by Him.
Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your Name, cast out demons in Your Name, and done many wonders in Your Name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you: depart from Me, you who practice lawless!!
John 6:38 Fpr I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. 40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
The will of the Father is we believe on the Son Jesus Christ so that we may have eternal life and be raise up into incorruption at the last day.
1 John 3;4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. 5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you/ He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Jesus will tell believers who still sin to depart from Him. Why? Because they are still in their sin and they are of the devil not of God. To be known by God is to not sin, to love Him, and to keep His commandments.
Proverbs 18:4 Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist them.
What Law? The commnadments Jesus gave us.
Matthew 5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.