It is interesting to examine the time and setting of the Pharisee's question to Jesus regarding which Old Testament commandment was the greatest (Matthew 22:34-40). He asked it the week before Jesus' death, just before He demonstrated the point He made in His answer. Imagine also our Savior's emotional setting as He answered this question, designed to entrap Him. He knew that His death on the cross was just days away; yet, these people for whom He was about to die were trying to discredit Him. A lawyer asked, "Which is the great commandment of the law?"

This "legal expert" probably thought this was a formidable question. The Jewish rabbis, we are told, believed there were at least 613 Old Testament laws. Of these, 248 were positive commands, and 365 were negative. This protagonist likely thought it would be impossible for Jesus to answer his question. But Jesus did answer. And His answer was a quotation from the Old Testament. He recited Deuteronomy 6:5: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." This, Jesus said, was the first and greatest commandment. The lawyer only asked about the greatest, or first, commandment; but Jesus volunteered the second, which emanated from the first. He again quoted Scripture, going to Leviticus 19:18: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

These commands summarize the Old Testament. All human responsibility can be categorized into three areas:

1. Our duty to God, as our creator, to worship Him. This is our religious responsibility. It is an act of love that is to come from our entire being.
2. Naturally, our moral obligation or responsibility to our fellow human beings emanates from the first duty, because God created all men "in His own image." If men are created in God's image, they also must be respected and loved.
3. The third responsibility, not stated but implied, is to self. It comes after our first and second obligations, but since we also are made in God's image, we must properly love ourselves.

Jesus said that the commands to love God and man summarized the Old Testament law and the teachings of the prophets. If we made a list of those 613 laws (as the rabbis counted them), we could categorize them either under "loving God" or "loving our fellow man." You can very easily see the two categories in the Ten Commandments. And while, in a sense, loving God, our fellow men, and ourselves are separate activities, they are also interconnected. You really can't do one effectively without doing the others.

What Is the Nature of Love?

Everyone talks about love. Preachers preach about it; young men and women pursue it; and even the worst sinners seek it. But what is love?

• A regular dictionary begins by describing it as "an intense feeling of deep affection."
• Further, it is described as romantic or sexual.
• Then, the dictionary mentions that the word is sometimes used merely to describe those things we like very much or in which we find pleasure. And that's where the dictionary quits.

If we take only the popular usage of the word, we likely will miss Jesus' meaning when He said that loving God and loving our fellow man were the greatest of all God's commandments, and a summation of the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:34-40).

The Bible never uses the word "love" in some of the senses in which we use it today. The Greek language, in which the New Testament was written, did have the word phileo, which speaks of the type of love that involves "feelings, instinct, and warm affection." This is the love we have for family, friends, and brethren.

But, the Greek word in which we are most interested is agapo. This love has been described as the love of the intellect, involving a disposition that manifests itself in devotion to the object of this love. This aspect of love doesn't so much emanate from emotion as from a calculated determination.

Whereas phileo describes love's feelings or emotions, agapo speaks of love's actions. These aspects of love may exist simultaneously. But, at other times, we demonstrate love to those for whom we feel no warm attachment or emotional connection.

Sin separates man from God (Isaiah 59:2). Yet, God "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son." (John 3:16) God acted in love, even when our sins negated a warm bond of fellowship. He commanded us to love in like manner. We are to love our enemies, including those who despitefully use and persecute us (Matthew 5:44). It is doubtful we can have warm emotional ties to evil enemies, but we can love them as God loved us, while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8).

How Do We Love God?

Certainly, when we consider what God, by sacrificing His only son, did for us, it should affect us emotionally. Emotional love would not be unexpected. But loving God entails more than warm feeling or affection. Someone has written that loving God is a way of life, that it is a devoted commitment that consumes one's very existence. The apostle Paul seemed to speak in this vein when he said, "For me, to live is Christ." (Philippians 1:23)

Since God is physically invisible (Colossians 1:15), we love Him because of what we know about His character, nature, or traits. We demonstrate our love by imitating His nature. And this is the underlying principle behind what Jesus declared when He said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15) Obeying God's commands allows us to imitate Him, worship Him with our whole being, to love Him. And, if we seek to love Him through imitation, we will demonstrate love to others. John summed it up this way: "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)

Again, love for God is not a mushy, superficial emotion. It is not merely expressed by waving our hands over our heads and chanting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" or the like. Love for God is a serious dedication to emulating Him. His commandments define what He considers righteous and unrighteous. By obeying, we conform to, and partake of, His divine nature (2 Peter 1:2-9).

What Else Do We Know About God's Love?

• It is not partial or limited, but universal. God loves all men (John 3:16). That doesn't mean He won't punish the wicked, but His sacrifice of Jesus demonstrates God's unwillingness to see anyone lost (2 Peter 3:9).
• His love is not merely felt; it is concretely demonstrated through action. Thus, we see it as real and not as an abstraction.
• God's love is unselfish. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." (Philippians 2:5-8)
• It is inexpressible in degree, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift." (2 Corinthians 9:15) It is also unquenchable (Romans 8:31-39).

Therefore, when we love God, we love learning from His word, about His ways. And we want to be like Him and have Him living within us.