Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31 NKJV)
How can God command people to love? Is that even possible? People generally say that love, as an emotion, cannot be commanded. Since we are commanded to love, something about love must be within our power and ability to do.
Love is a decision, an action or a behavior. One can be commanded to carry out an act that is loving, and we can willingly obey it, despite what our feelings or emotions may be at the time. For example, consider, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil” (Luke 6:35).
We are told to keep the most important commandment, but what is it? Jesus said it is to hear and pay attention to God’s Word. “Jesus answered him, ‘The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one’” (Mark 12:29). It is interesting to note that the phrase, “You shall love the Lord your God,” is not in the imperative mood, but it is in the future tense, active voice and indicative mood—the resulting action. If we will hear and do—actually follow His directions to hear (which means to listen to His Word)—the result will be, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). This is agape love. It is the highest form of love (John 3:16; Romans 5:5–11). This kind of love is commanded in 1 Corinthians 16:14, which covers everything done toward both God and any human being.
These verses state both the cause (hear and follow God’s Word) and the result (you will come to love Him). Love is taught or learned (Romans 5:5). It often comes as a reaction to what we see or experience from another person, even Deity. “God is love… We love Him because He first loved us”(1 John 4:16–19).
Yet, emotion is not stripped from the command to love God with our whole heart, whole soul, whole mind and whole strength. He does not want emotionless robots. In 1 Corinthians 16:22, Paul said, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. O Lord, come!” The word for “love” that Paul used here is not agape love but the phileo or the brotherly kind of love, which often is tied to our emotions. Read 1 Samuel 18:1 and note that type of love. The sense of “accursed” in 1 Corinthians 16:22 is “doomed to destruction.” Emotions are not forbidden, but since “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked…” (Jeremiah 17:9), the Word of God must guide the heart to love properly!
So, are we commanded to love God and others? Absolutely! However, you cannot know how to do that unless and until you hear God—study His Word. Then, obey Him by loving Him with your whole being, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.
