Matthew 22:37 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.”
Love God and do what you want. You might be familiar with this quote from St. Augustine. At first glance, it may appear a bit sloppy and self-indulgent, but the wisdom in its simple profundity remains unparalleled.
Those seven words sum up Augustine’s perspective on how to live as a Christian. If we love God more than anything, our morals, ethics and priorities fall into place. We don’t want to sin because we love God and he doesn’t want us to. We want to “do justice, love mercy and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8) because that’s what the lover of our soul asks us to do. To entertain injustice, to withhold compassion or to walk in pride mars the image of the one we love. And we don’t want to do that.
The problem comes when we compromise our love for God. Thaddeus Williams, in his excellent book, Confronting Justice without Compromising Truth, explains how idolatry “is the first injustice and the carcinogenic source of every other injustice.” When we replace God as our first love with relationships, with aspirations, or causes, we create “counterfeit gods,” as Tim Keller describes. No longer are we driven by our love for God, but by whatever we have exalted in his place.
When the disciples asked Jesus what the greatest commandment was, he said, “to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Jesus was pointing back to the very first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). So if both the Old Testament and New Testament point to loving God as the most important thing… I would say it’s pretty significant.
And does it ever free us! We don’t have to second guess our motives if we love God. And when we do mess up, we know the God we love forgives and redeems. We’re not bound by legalistic duties because the God we love has shown us a better way.
So I agree with St. Augustine. Let’s make loving God our number one priority, then enjoy doing what we want to do!