The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Questioning God’s Greatest Commandment

It is sad that you are having a difficult time understanding that anyone can "love God with my all". Perhaps it would be best if I spend just a brief moment dealing with the experimental side of the matter rather than correcting your misunderstanding of the texts you want to use in an attempt to prove your position.

1. When a sinner, who is born with a corruption of nature, i.e., every thought and imagination of the heart is evil continually (Gen 6:8, 8:21, et al) is regenerated, there are two fundamental and indispensable revelations which occur; one's understanding is given to know a) the greatness, majesty, love, holiness and justice of God and b) the greatness, depth, and guilt of sin. Calvin wrote that he was not sure which came first, but one thing is certain, both are revealed to the sinner's mind, heart and soul.

2. The knowledge of God to whom all are bound to worship in spirit and truth is not primarily based upon what God has done, but rather who God IS. This knowledge of God is revealed both in nature and within due to the fact that all men are created in the image of God (Rom. 1:19,20). The eternal power and divinity are inherently known and thus it is a person's innate duty to worship and obey Him as Creator of all things.

3. The knowledge of sin with a deep conviction of it is the first thing given to the regenerated sinner by the Holy Spirit (Jh 16:18). This heart-felt and overwhelming sense of sin and guilt and that one is worthy of God's eternal wrath and judgment is what drives a sinner to Christ and plead God for mercy in Him. Yet, this initial conviction of sin is but the beginning for as a regenerated sinner, this conviction of sin increases throughout the believer's sanctification along with an increase in the knowledge of God and His ineffable holiness. Thus, Paul toward the end of his life exclaimed, "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing..." (Rom 7:18), and "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief:" (1Tim 1:15).

4. A true believer KNOWS in his mind and in the inner most recesses of his heart that it is utterly impossible to love God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength because he is hopelessly sinful. This does not discount the fact that the believer has been given a new nature, i.e., a spiritual disposition out of which flows faith in Christ and a love for God. But that faith and love is tainted with sin and if it wasn't for the believer being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, God would reject that faith and love and immediately cast him into eternal damnation.

5. When in the epistles it is written concerning the "flesh", in most cases it is not referring to one's physical body, but rather to that sin nature which remains in a spiritually alive believer. The 'body of flesh' is that resident sinful predisposition toward sin. The physical body is a glorious thing which God created for a man's soul, and though it is in and of itself incapable of committing sin, because it is inseparable from the soul, it too is subject to the penalty of corruption due to sin; "death passed unto all men, for that all sinned" (Rom 5:12). Thus Paul in Romans 7 isn't denigrating his physical body when he writes about his "flesh" but rather that remaining sin nature that wars against his new spiritual nature (disposition) within.

6. All the other passages which you referenced show that although one may know intellectually what is right, pure, holy and good, that remaining sin nature won't allow the person to actually DO what he knows is required. But even the renewed mind is tainted with sin and the truth is too often rejected for that which one wants in order to satisfy his lusts for the world and the flesh. Added to one's own tendency to sin, there is the influence and power of Satan and his fellow fallen angels that lead one into error and sin.

7. Lastly, an adopted child of the most holy God will truly love God with all his heart, mind, soul and strength, but not in this life. That will happen and can only happen when the redeemed are glorified and delivered from all sin. Until then, all our attempts to be perfect in this life will fail and that miserably according to God's perfect standard of righteousness. Thus, as the true believer grows in grace, the knowledge of his own personal sinfulness will increase which results in an increase in faith of the person of the LORD Christ... his only hope for eternal life with God.

The Bible nowhere even hints of any form of perfectionism. But it is God's prescriptive will that ALL men be perfect and holy as He is perfect and holy (Matt 5:48; 1Pet 1:15,16). It is God's eternal will/decree that the elect be made holy (Eph 1:4ff) but that doesn't mean that immediately after the Spirit regenerates a sinner's dead soul that this occurs. The life-long process of sanctification gradually prepares the soul for heaven but it is not completed on this earth.

QUESTION: Why can't you love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength?
ANSWER: Because you are a sinner and incapable of doing one good thing perfectly.

For a true believer, loving God perfectly is done by faith in the Son of God who loved God with all His heart, mind, soul and strength, He being perfectly righteous and holy in doing all that God required of Him and that most willingly and whose love of God is accredited to the believer's account and whose perfect righteousness is the believer's raiment making it possible to even know God and communicate with Him.