2 Peter 2 Lesson

PUTTING GOD FIRST

The greatest commandmentin the Bible is to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds (Mathew 22:37).  

In today’s lesson, we will discuss what it means to love God on this level.  

Our focus scripture today comes from the Gospel of Mathew:

• “But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together.   One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”   And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.” – Mathew 22:34-38.

In this scripture, we see how important it is to God that He comes first in our lives.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS ( Exodus 20:1-17)

The Ten Commandments were delivered to Moses and written by God, Himself, as we see in the following scripture:

• Now the Lord said to Moses, “Come up to Me on the mountain and stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets with the Law and the commandments which I have written for their instruction.” - Exodus 24:12.

They cover some of the most serious sins, including:

• Murder,
• Stealing,
• And honoring our parents.

The complete list of the Ten Commandments is as follows:

1. You shall have no gods before Me,
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol,
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain,
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,
5. Honor your father and your mother,
6. You shall not murder,
7. You shall not commit adultery,
8. You shall not steal,
9. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor,
10. You shall not covet.

As important as these commandments are, they are not as important to God as the commandment to love Him with all our hearts, souls, and minds.  

LOVING GOD 

So how do we love God?  

Fortunately for us, Jesus answered that question in the Gospel of John:

Jesus said:

• “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” – John 14:15.

That is it!  

The most important commandment in the world is to love God, and the way that we love God is by keeping His commandments.

Of course, in order to keep God’s commandments, we must first understand what those commandments are.

READING THE BIBLE AND APPLYING WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

The more that we read the Bible, the better we understand what we were created to do.

And as we mature in our faith, we will come to the realization that our time on earth is to be spent doing two things:

1. Glorifying God,
2. Serving others. 

Consider the following scripture:

• “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” - 2 Timothy 2:15.

If we do not understand God’s Word and how to apply it, we are putting our souls at risk!

We are warned in the following scripture that our own instincts will sometimes fail us. 

• “There is a way which seems right to a person, but its end is the way of death.” - Proverbs 14:12.

Jesus was constantly going to a quiet place to study the scriptures. 

If it was important for God’s own Son to study the scriptures, it needs to be important to us also.

Throughout our lives, we must continue to train ourselves in righteousness.

This begins with a solid understanding of God's Word.

CONCLUSION

Of all the commandments in the Bible, only one was identified by Jesus as being the most important.  

That commandment is that we love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, as seen in the following scripture:

• One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”   And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.” – Mathew 22:35-38.

Loving God means keeping His commandments (John 14:15).

Loving God with all our hearts, minds, and souls means that every ounce of our being is dedicated to doing two things:

1. Glorifying God,
2. Serving others.

Loving God with all our hearts, minds, and souls, means taking the focus off ourselves, and putting it on God and others.

We will end today’s lesson with the following scripture:

• “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” - John 14:21.