“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.” (Matthew 15:8). “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40). I don’t think that I had ever considered these two sets of scriptures together before, but if all of the laws hang on the commandment to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves, then it makes sense that the greatest danger for us to disobey or sin against God is when our heart is far from God. After all, it is with our hearts that we love, so if our hearts are far from God, then that means that any commandments that we are attempting to follow are done without our hearts, and thus, without love. And we can’t obey even the smallest of God’s commandments if we are not doing so from a place of love, with our hearts. So if we ever find ourselves in a situation where we are attempting to live the Gospel without love in our hearts, then our obedience can’t be genuine. And on the flip side, if we are truly acting in a way that shows our love to God and to our neighbors and to ourselves, then however much or little what we are doing has the appearance of righteousness, If to obey is better than sacrifice, then to love with all of our hearts is best of all. If we have love in our hearts, then our hearts are close to God, because God is love. And if we don’t have love in our hearts, then no matter what we say, our hearts are far from God.
