“…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.” Mark 12:30

God’s purpose for Christians can be captured in a nutshell. Jesus, in Mark 12:30, put it simply as loving God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. In other words, loving God engages the whole of our being, every part of who we are. It is all encompassing. Nothing is left out.

The command to love God comes from Deuteronomy 6:5. It was given when the Israelites were about to settle into the Promised Land. Out of this love, the Israelites were to give the firstfruits from their land (see Deuteronomy 26:1-2). In an agricultural society like Israel, the offering of firstfruits had significance. They were an expression of thanksgiving for God’s blessings of provision and protection. They were also an expression of obedience to Him.

While we no longer offer firstfruits to God, the principle behind it is still applicable to us today. We offer first ourselves wholly to God by giving the best of ourselves to Him. It is to put Him first.

Jesus followed up with a second command in Mark 12:31,
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” One way to do so is to serve others (Galatians 5:13-14)

An implication of loving God and others is this: we don’t give our “leftovers” to God: our leftover time, our leftover energy or our leftover resources. We give our best to Him by serving Him and others.

The young people you will read about in this REACH embodies what it means to love God and others. They exemplify the words of this hymn:

Give of your best to the Master;
Give of the strength of your youth;
Clad in salvation’s full armour,
Join in the battle for truth.