Our lives — both what we say and how we live — say a lot about us.
They are a living testament to what we believe to be important, meaningful, and worthy of… well, our very lives.
And while words are important, it is ultimately how we live our lives — and what we give them to — that speaks to the priorities we have chosen for ourselves.
So, what does your life reflect?
Is it a genuine and growing love for the One True God? Or is it something else?
In the Old Testament, the very first law that the Lord gives Moses (and the Israelites) as He is establishing a covenant with them was this:
You shall have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3)
No other gods. None.
Nothing gets to take priority in your life before Me! — is what God was trying to communicate to the Israelites.
It wouldn’t matter if they followed the rest of the Law (all 600+ laws) if they didn’t first commit themselves to this one life-shaping priority.
And if you’ve read much of the Old Testament at all, then you know what a struggle it was for the Israelites to adhere to this one command.
Fast-forward to the time of Jesus — the New Testament (the new covenant) — and Jesus’ response to “an expert in the Law” when he was asked, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus reply:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. (Matthew 22: 37-38)
Jesus goes on to explain that all of the Law and all of the Prophets are summed up in the commands to love God and to love thy neighbor.
And this word stands as much more than a simple answer to the question of this expert in the Law, especially in light of Jesus earlier proclamation captured in 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.
Jesus is letting all who had gathered — as well as all of us who would read His words and willingly choose to follow him — that this one priority (this Greatest Commandment) had not and would not change.
Loving God — above all else — is what our lives are supposed to reflect at their very core as followers of Jesus.
And this isn’t something that can be manufactured or covered over in an abundance of good deeds.
This is a slow work of the heart — grown and developed through the constant and consistent pursuit of Jesus.
And what God is doing on the inside eventually come bursting forth from our lives — both through what we say and do.
It is an overflow of the active work of God in our lives.
There are not short-cuts.
Is this what your life reflects?
Is this how others would describe you? If not, what do you think they would say is the driving and defining priority by which you live?
And more importantly, how will you choose to re-prioritize your life such that it begins to bear the fruit of God’s activity in your life?
