BiblicalInsights.net

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:29-30).  Jesus affirms a moral hierarchy of the heart.  In Mark 12:29-31, He gives an order:  first, then second.  First, love for God must be supreme.  Then, love for neighbor.  There is none other commandments greater than these.  This does not mean the other commandments of God are not important, but that these two rank high in our understanding and practice.
Our relationship with God must be defined by our love for Him.  Love for God must be supreme, complete, intense, and authentic.  Love for God encompasses our entire being.  When we love God supremely, then obeying all of God’s commands follows.  When we love God supremely, then we will love our neighbor as ourselves.  Love for neighbor worketh no ill toward our neighbor.  It involves seeking the highest good for our neighbor and acting to accomplish it.
Love for God (Mark 12:29-30); love for the kingdom of God (Matt. 6:33); and love for spiritual things (Col. 3:1-2) outrank other loves.  Consider some examples:
-When we put our own desire for recreation ahead of worshiping God, we have violated the moral hierarchy of the heart.  Love for God ranks above love for golf or any other form of recreation.
-If we love our family above love for God, we have violated the moral hierarchy of the heart.  “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
-If we seek to preserve our lives from persecution and so deny the faith, we violate the moral hierarchy of the heart.  “And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:38).  Love for God is greater than love for life if and when I am called upon to give my life in service to my Lord.
-Love for your children is more important than love for your job.
-Love for truth is more important than love for popularity.  If someone tells you something in confidence and you tell it to others in order to seem important, you have placed the love of popularity (love of self) above love of friendship.  You have violated the moral hierarchy of the heart.
-When you demand your rights to the destruction of the souls of weaker brethren, you violate the moral hierarchy of the heart.  Romans 14:13-17.
Often when we violate the moral hierarchy of the heart, we are  putting self ahead of God and others.  Selfishness is the opposite of love (I Cor. 13:4-8).
A final thought comes from the writings of the apostle Paul.  Faith is important and essential, but it is not greater than love.  Hope is important and essential to Christian living, but it is not more important than love.  “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love-DS)” I Corinthians 13:13.  Love is the more excellent way!  Love has its priorities and these priorities define the moral hierarchy of the heart.

God does not approve of loving everything.  Some loves are forbidden.  Consider the following scriptures that indicate this important truth.
First, Matt. 6:24, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”  Jesus states that you cannot serve the God of heaven and the god of mammon at the same time and in the same place.  The god of mammon represents the idolatry of materialism.  If we love God, we will despise the god of mammon.  Love for mammon is forbidden by love for God.
Second, John 3:19-20, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”  Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12).  The light represent truth and righteousness.  Those who love darkness, hate the light.  If you love the light, you will hate darkness (evil).  You cannot love both light and darkness at the same time.  Love for darkness is forbidden by love for the light.
Third, I Tim. 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”  Love for money is forbidden by love for righteousness.  Love for money is part of the idolatry of mammon.
Fourth, I John 2:15-16, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”  Worldliness is condemned by John.  Sinful actions constitute worldliness.  Love for the Father forbids love for the world including its lusts of the flesh.
Fifth, Rom. 1:26-27, “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.”  The affection involving sexual attraction and conduct of one man for another man or a woman for another woman (commonly called homosexuality) is a forbidden love.  The objects of the affection are forbidden by God and the affection is called by Paul a vile (dishonorable passion) affection.  Also, Paul calls the sexual attraction a “burning in their lust one toward another.”  What is sometimes called love is not love.  It is dishonorable passion involving the lusts of the flesh.  This is a form of worldliness and constitutes a forbidden love.  There is no way to make homosexual marriages “honorable” when in fact they involve dishonorable passion and forbidden love.  Love for God forbids this type of dishonorable passion.  The marriage of a man to another man or woman to another woman is a sinful act that places both souls in peril.  Love for neighbor is violated whenever we act in such a way as to put another’s soul in danger of condemnation from God.  The sins of men and women put Jesus on the cross.  He died to redeem and to reform each of us.  Redemption involves forgiveness.  Reformation involves sanctification which is separation from the world for a holy purpose.  If we truly love the Lord Jesus Christ, we will not violate His Will nor crucify afresh the Son of God by sinful conduct.
Love for God is the first and greatest commandment.  “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38).  Love for God is violated when we love that which God forbids!