To Know Our Maker

When a scribe asked him for the greatest commandment, Jesus replied: “’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).  

Many of us view faith as a religious checklist. When we read this verse, we might believe that loving God fully means crossing off certain spiritual practices like prayer and giving, church attendance and Bible study, or service and evangelism. But is that what it means to love God? Though loving him involves obeying his commands (John 14:15), does obedience itself indicate love?   

Problems With a Religious Lens  

Without the right focus, we can fall into one of two traps that prevent us from knowing and loving God with all we are:  

1. Conditional love. The first question is whether we even love God. Do we perform these activities for him or for ourselves? Is our love contingent on us receiving certain benefits and blessings from him?  

Christian author and speaker Skye Jethani outlines four postures with which we may, consciously or not, try to use God for our own goals: 1) Some people adhere to moral teachings for a sense of stability in a big, scary world; 2) others distill Scripture into bite-sized principles to improve their careers and lives; 3) some people go to church to be blessed with health, wealth, and protection; 4) others derive meaning and prestige from their ministry positions. In each case, these people want something from God more than being with him.  

2. Compartmentalized lives. Jesus didn’t say love God with some part of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He made it clear that we are to fully love God in each of these domains.  

Take, for instance, our minds. We can and should love God by studying the Bible, memorizing verses, and understanding theology. But relegating our mind’s relationship with God to explicitly spiritual things would be a huge miss. How might we also love God by studying chemistry, music, or engineering? How might we honor him with all our mental capacities like perception, problem-solving, and creativity?  

When our faith is reduced to religious acts alone, it falls short of God’s design. 

Missing Out 

The gospels are full of people who thought they knew God because of their religiosity. Because of this, they missed out on a deeper, richer understanding of who he is and what he asks of us.  

Take the Pharisee who stood in the temple and boasted of his morality. He fasted, prayed, and tithed more than his neighbors. He kept the law and then some. Yet he did not go home justified before God (Luke 18:10-14). All his good behavior amounted to little (Matthew 6:2, 5, 16).   

First-century Jews were well-versed in biblical knowledge. They internalized the laws and memorized large sections of the Old Testament. They searched the Scriptures, as Jesus put it, yet they missed the One about whom those texts testified (John 5:39-40). They failed to recognize the Word in the flesh. 

Loving God More Than Religion  

Upon hearing Jesus’ response, the scribe replied, “Well said, teacher… To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices”—more than rituals and religion. (Mark 12:32-33).  

To be clear, these religious practices are good things. They are just not the ultimate thing. We cannot stand on our own righteousness. Even our best behaviors are like filthy rags before God (Isaiah 64:6).  

The point isn’t to be good at fasting or prayer, Bible study or evangelism. The point is to know our maker. To have an intimate, experiential knowledge of God. To recognize the distinct quality, spirit, and content of his voice. To take up our cross and follow him daily.  

It starts with a desire to know him more. Rather than going through the motions, view each activity with fresh eyes: How does this spiritual discipline bring me closer to God? Ask him to speak to you through it. Commit to following even when you don’t understand. Surround yourself with mature believers who will journey with you. Seek God with your whole being, for he will reveal himself (Jeremiah 29:13).  

Only when we know our maker can we love him fully.