Thou Shalt Love The Lord Thy God

Scriptural Aids for Knowing God and His Will

When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He gave this reply from the Scriptures: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind' (Mt. 22:37; Deut. 6:5). This command defines the ultimate purpose of our existence. We were created for God and have been redeemed that we might love Him with all our hearts. Deuteronomy 13:4 amplifies this command, You shall follow the Lord your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him and cling to Him.'

So our Christian life can be summed up as: To know God and His will. But what does this mean? The Scriptures give us the answer. Scripture is God's revelation of Himself and His will to men. We know God and His will by the truth of the Word of God. The believer is called upon to know God. This is more than an intellectual process, but we must remember, it is not less than one. We must embrace the truth of God with our minds before we can adequately and acceptably love Him, serve Him and worship Him. The knowledge of God is rooted in faith and faith is rooted in truth. That truth is Scripture. Experience apart from truth can lead to a mysticism where the word god' becomes meaningless. One's concept of God becomes nothing more than the product of one's own imagination. The same applies to our understanding of the will of God. Whether it be with respect to our knowledge of God Himself or living the Christian life, our foundation is the truth of Scripture. Scripture teaches us that the Christian life is to be focused, governed by specific unalterable principles. Those principles define for us the Christian life and the will of God. Therefore, if the Christian life is governed by certain principles it is essential for us to have a clear idea of what those principles are.

This book is a collation of Scriptures dealing with the attributes of God and the major principles of the Christian life. It lists these principles under specific headings such as, The Primacy of Our Relationship with God, Worship, Faith, Obedience, Prayer, Promises, etc. which include a listing of Scriptures pertinent to that particular topic. The purpose is not to provide an exhaustive list of the Scriptures on these topics but to give enough of the teaching of the Word of God for purposes of meditation, memorization and study. Romans 12:2 commands us: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.' Our lives become transformed as we renew our minds by studying, meditating on, memorizing and obeying the Word of God. Psalm 119 tells us that the way to keep our heart's pure before God and to keep ourselves in the path of righteousness is by hiding God's Word in our heart: How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word...Thy word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee' (Ps. 119:9, 11).