The Greatest Commandment
Jesus doesn’t call people to a social or political movement, or even to a life of religion or ethical living. More than anything, he calls us to love God—a call that the laws of Moses first stated.
Repeatedly throughout his earthly ministry, Jesus called this the greatest commandment.
Centuries later, Protestant theologians restated this simple call to love God. “What is the chief end of man?” asked the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith. “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”
Throughout Christian history, many disciples of Jesus have described the immense love of God.
Perhaps none did so as eloquently as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), a Cistercian monk who was both an intellectual and a mystic and whose French monastery had a worldwide influence.
Bernard’s most famous work is On Loving God, which contains the following words of wisdom: You want me to tell you why God is to be loved and how much.
I answer the reason for loving God is God Himself; and the measure of love due to Him is immeasurable love. Is this plain?
We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable.
When one asks, Why should I love God? he may mean, What is lovely in God? or What shall I gain by loving God? In either case, the same sufficient cause of love exists, namely, God Himself.
Bernard argued that God is entitled to our wholehearted affection:
For although God would be loved without respect of reward, He will not leave love unrewarded. True charity cannot be left destitute, even though she is unselfish and seeketh not her own (1 Corinthians 13:5).
Love is an affection of the soul, not a contract: it cannot rise from a mere agreement, nor is it so to be gained. It is spontaneous in its origin and impulse; true love is its own satisfaction.
It has its reward, but that reward is the object beloved. For whatever you seem to love, if it is on account of something else, what you do really love is that something else, not the apparent object of desire.
God could have created robots that would “love” him on com¬mand, but he didn’t. He gave us hearts and free will to do as we please. Still, as Bernard told us so eloquently, love is our only appropriate response to God.
I love you, Father. Help my love for you to grow.