Of Loving God
Samuel Clarke, D. D. Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength… I. THE DUTY ENJOINED is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God." A true love of God must be founded upon a right sense of His perfections being really amiable in themselves, and beneficial to us: and such a love of God will of necessity show forth itself in our endeavouring to practise the same virtues ourselves, and exercise them towards others. All perfection is in itself lovely and amiable in the very nature of the thing: the virtues and excellencies of men remote in history, from whom we can receive no personal advantage, excite in us an esteem whether we will or no: and every good mind, when it reads or thinks upon the character of an angel, loves the idea, though it has no present communication with the subject to whom so lovely a character belongs: much more the inexhaustible Fountain of all perfections; of perfections without number and without limit; the Centre, in which all excellencies unite, in which all glory resides, and from which every good thing proceeds, cannot but be the supreme object of love to a reasonable and intelligent mind. Even supposing we ourselves received no benefit therefrom, yet infinite power, knowledge, and wisdom in conjunction, are lovely in the very idea, and amiable even in the abstract imagination. But that which makes these perfections most truly and substantially, most really and permanently, the object of our love, is the application of them to ourselves, and our own more immediate concerns, by the consideration of their being joined also with those relative and moral excellencies, which make them at the same time no less beneficial to us than they are excellent absolutely in their own nature. I say, then is it that God truly appears the complete object of love, for so our Saviour Himself teaches us to argue (Luke 7:47) — To whom much is forgiven, he will love the more; and the apostle St. John (1 John 4:19) — "We," says he, "love Him, because He first loved us." This, therefore, is the true ground and foundation of our love towards God. But wherein this love towards God consists, and by what acts it is most properly exercised, has sometimes been very much misunderstood. It always signifies a moral virtue, not a passion or affection; and is therefore in Scripture always with great care explained and declared to mean the obedience of a virtuous life, in opposition to the enthusiasm of a vain imagination. In the Old Testament, Moses, in his last exhortation to the Israelites, thus expresses it (Deuteronomy 10:12): "And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, and to love Him?" And what is loving Him? Why, He tells them in the very next words, 'tis, "To walk in all His ways, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good." And again (2 John 6), "This," says he, "is love, that we walk after His commandments." For what is rational love but a desire to please the person beloved, and a complacency or satisfaction in pleasing him? To love God, therefore, is to have a sincere desire of obeying His laws, and a delight or pleasure in the conscience of that obedience. Even to an earthly superior, to a parent, or a prince, love can no otherwise be shown from a child or a servant than by cheerfully observing the laws, and promoting the true interest of the government he is under. Now from this account which has been given of the true nature of love towards God, it will be easy for us to correct the errors which men have sometimes fallen into in both extremes. Some have been very confident of their love towards God from a mere warmth of superstitious zeal and enthusiastic affection, without any great care to bring forth in their lives the fruits of righteousness and true holiness. On the contrary, others there are, who though they really love and fear and serve God in the course of a virtuous and religious life, yet, because they feel not in themselves that warmth of affection which many enthusiasts pretend to, therefore they are afraid and suspect that they do not love God sincerely as they ought. II. Having thus at large explained the duty enjoined in the text, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," I proceed now in the second place to consider briefly THE CIRCUMSTANCES REQUISITE TO MAKE THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY ACCEPTABLE AND COMPLETE: "Thou shalt love Him with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." In St. Luke it is somewhat more distinctly: "With all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, and with all thy mind." 1. It must be sincere: we must love or obey Him with all our heart. 'Tis not the external act only, but the inward affection of the mind principally that God regards, an affection of mind which influences all a man's actions in secret as well as in public, which determines the person's true character or denomination, and distinguishes him who really is a servant of God from him who only seems or appears to be so. 2. Our obedience must be universal: we must love God with all our soul, or with our whole soul. He does not love God in the Scripture sense who obeys Him in some instances only and not in all. The Psalmist places his confidence in this only, that he "had respect unto all God's commandments" (Psalm 119:6). Generally speaking, most men's temptation lies principally in some one particular instance, and this is the proper trial of the person's obedience, or of his love towards God. 3. Our obedience must be constant and persevering in time as well as universal in its extent; we must love God with all our strength, persevering in our duty without fainting. "He that endureth to the end," saith our Saviour, "the same shall be saved;" and "he that overcometh shall inherit all things;" and "we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." The Scripture notion of obedience is, walking "in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life" (Luke 1:75). 4. Our obedience to God ought to be willing and cheerful: we must love Him with all our mind. "They that love Thy name will be joyful in Thee" (Psalm 5:12): and St. Paul, among the fruits of the Spirit, reckons up peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. But virtue becomes more perfect when 'tis made easy by love, and by habitual practice incorporated as it were into a man's very nature and temper. III. The last thing observable in the text is THE WEIGHT AND IMPORTANCE OF THE DUTY: it is the "first and great commandment." The reason is, because 'tis the foundation of all; and without regard to God ,there can be no religion. (Samuel Clarke, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. WEB: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment.