2 Peter 2 Lesson

PUTTING GOD FIRST

The greatest commandmentfound in all of 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)

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.

The ten commandments were delivered to Moses and written by God, Himself!

• 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:

1. Murder,
2. Stealing,
3. And honoring our parents.

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 show God that we love Him? 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 thing in the world is to love God and the way that we do that is by keeping His commandments.

LEARNING WHAT GOD’S COMMANDMENTS ARE

There is only one way to learn what God’s commandments are, and that is by reading the Bible. And as we read the Bible, we need to challenge ourselves by asking the following four questions:

1. What did I just read?
2. How did it make me feel?
3. How can I apply what I have learned to something specific that is happening in my life right now?
4. What questions do I have?

These four questions allow God’s word to seep deep into our hearts so that we can apply it to our lives. The Bible is not a book for us to read, put down, and forget about. It is designed to pierce our hearts and compel us to act on what we have learned.

APPLYING WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

Our faith is dead if it does not compel us to act!

The following is a beautifully written passage from the Book of James. It is a scripture that we can read repeatedly throughout our lives as we ponder what it means to act on our faith:

• “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’” – James 2:14-18. 

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:

• 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.

To love God means to keep His commandments (John 14:15).

To love Him with all our hearts, minds, and souls means that we dedicate the remainder of our lives to learning and keeping His commandments. It means that every waking moment is spent glorifying God and serving 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.