Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 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.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – Mk 12:29-31
To reject Jesus is to reject God. Jesus demands that we love God with all that we are for all that He is. Love for God and loving God are two separate things. That is, loving the person, being God. His identity, who and what He is.
In so doing, God’s glory becomes our supreme pleasure. That in our practice of loving God, our preference above all else is to know Him. This love is mostly an expression of affections, not solely behavior.
A natural outcome of this love of God is a love for people. Loving people is a byproduct of loving God. What happens in the heart is essential. Where outward behaviors will become pleasing to God when those behaviors stem from delight, admiration, and love for God.
Love leads to expression through the soul (life), mind (thought), and strength (effort). So that any other thing we love or treasure through occupation, hobbies, or interests is themselves means of treasuring God.
We will love God to the degree we know him.
