“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5).
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way” (Isaiah 53:6a). “All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Psalms 14:3). The Bible doesn’t mince words. At the beginning of Israel’s establishment, God commanded them to love Him with all their heart, soul, and strength. Within a few years, Israel had broken nearly every command given to them.
Not much has changed in today’s world. Our world and societies are corrupt, and our lives are corrupt. The only ones to blame are ourselves. Why? Because we have failed to follow the first and greatest commandment. “Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘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 22:34-38).
Why is such a simple commandment so hard to follow? Since the dawn of time and the creation of humanity, we have wanted to live our way without being told what to do and how to do it. We were given the freedom to choose our path in life. However, we were told of the consequences of what would happen if we decided to live our lives for ourselves. First, Adam and Eve were told not to touch the tree in the middle of the garden, and if they did, they would surely die. Along comes the serpent, the scheming, lying devil, who takes God’s words and restates them in a way that makes Adam and Eve reconsider God’s commandment:
“He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)
Do you see what the serpent did? He suggested that God was keeping something from Adam and Eve. He planted the idea in their head that God was not all good because He didn’t want them to know what He knew. He also told Adam and Eve that they would transcend who they were and become like God, knowing what He knew – good and evil. However, go back and read the commandments and consequences that they were told. “You can eat from any tree except the one in the middle. If you eat from the tree in the middle, you will surely die!”
As Adam and Eve ignored God’s commands and warnings and ate from the forbidden tree, they found themselves still very much alive. They didn’t keel over and die. God didn’t say they would physically die. He said they would surely die. What, then, did God mean? To answer this question, we need to go back to chapter 1:
“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27).
Humanity was created in God’s image. God is a spiritual being. He was, and is, and forever will be. He is everything good. When He made man and woman, he made them in His good, spiritual image. He warned Adam and Eve that they would surely die if they disregarded his warning. What is the ultimate kind of death? Eternal separation from God. Adam and Eve chose to ignore God’s warning, and ultimately, they died – spiritually. There was no longer any good in them. They choose to love themselves over loving God. What was their consequence? To be removed from the presence of God:
“And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken” (Genesis 3:22-23).
This one act set in motion a love story unlike any other. More than anything, God wanted to renew the broken relationship between Himself and humanity. Even though God had nothing to do with the breakup in our relationship, He still wanted to have a close relationship with us. The story starts with a covenant made by God with the people of Israel. God chose Israel to be a nation that would stand out from all other nations. All they needed to do was follow God’s commandments, and all would go well. But as we saw in the Garden of Eden, humanity has this lousy way of ignoring the words of God, and the consequences that He warns will come if we choose to ignore Him. Even though the Old Testament in the Bible focuses on the history of Israel and their relationship with God, it doesn’t mean that God’s words don’t apply to us today.
Again, God gave us free will. He never wanted us to be forced into loving Him. This is why he offers commandments with warnings. He tells us what is good because He is good. The Ten Commandments are a list of what goodness looks like. First and foremost, Love God and keep Him first. Second, love others. This is why Moses proclaimed, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Sadly, we have gone away from this simple commandment yet again.
We are corrupt! There is nothing good within us. You might be thinking that you live a good life. You haven’t murdered anyone. You haven’t stolen anything. The last time you were in traffic and got cut off, you waved with all your fingers. Here’s the clincher: just because you have lived this way doesn’t make you good. Jesus stated, “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17).
You know good AND evil. You are bent on doing evil. Perhaps you have lied or coveted something that someone else had. You don’t have to act on your feelings. You see, that’s the point. You KNOW good and evil. Before the first man and woman disregarded God’s command, they knew nothing but good. They didn’t know what it meant to lie. They didn’t know what it felt like to covet. They didn’t know what malice was. All they knew was good. This is why Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28)
Knowing evil is what causes spiritual death. Our thoughts alone make us guilty of sin. This is why the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is so necessary. It is only through Him that we can become spiritually alive. Even though we still know good and evil, the blood of Jesus covers a multitude of sins and brings us back into a relationship with God. However, the commandment still stands: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.”
Jesus said, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me” (John 14:23-24). This is how we become spiritually alive. We must submit to the authority of Jesus Christ and God the Father. We must stop thinking that we know what is best. We know nothing. This was made evident in the Garden of Eden. To love God is to obey Him.
“These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:5). It is not enough to just read the words of God. We must put them in our hearts. We must memorize them. We must teach them. We must write them in our house so that we constantly see them. If we are not consistently in the Word of God, seeking to know Him and His commands to obey and follow them, then we don’t truly love Him.
James, the brother of Jesus, wrote this:
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.” (James 1:22-25)
We must be doers of the Word. We must listen and obey. We must love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, and with all of our strength. We must write the Word of God on our hearts. We must teach God’s commandments to our children. We must write God’s commands in our homes. We need to stop believing that we know what is best. We must stop listening to evil and do what is good. We must cling to the cross of Christ and strive to become spiritually alive. The more we keep ignoring God, the more corrupt we become.
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57).
Selfless Leadership Is Purposeful Leadership 