Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commandment in Matthew 22:35-38. Just like regular doctor visits, local churches and Christians should allow frequent check-ups in each area addressed by the Great Commandment to evaluate their spiritual health. The suggested categories proposed below are not new, but perhaps will help individuals and church leaders evaluate areas of strength to be capitalized for greater service. At the same time, this evaluation may reveal areas for future growth and concentrated development. The categories are simply these: learning, loving, and living.
Learning: A Relentless Pursuit of Knowledge
A love for learning is an integral component of our relationship with Christ. A passionate desire to learn develops deeper integrity and intensity with age and maturity. Christians should be the most curious, honest, and open with questions in every field of study. This desire to learn is especially important in theology. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “Nothing is more important for the student of theology than to inquire more and more carefully, more and more objectively, more and more openly, more and more in love, concerning the truth of the Gospel.”[1] An ever-deepening pursuit of knowledge characterizes healthy local churches and individual believers.
The type of learning we’re talking about here is not dead orthodoxy. Rather, it is characterized by deep contemplation, consistent meditation, and perpetual pursuit of precision in knowing the God we worship. A relentless pursuit of true knowledge is what it looks like to love God with the mind. This type of learning leads to the second area of evaluation: the heart.
Loving: A Deep Affection for Truth
Learning for the Christian does not end with the accumulation of facts. Knowledge helps us realign and train our affections for a deeper love of the truth. Greater understanding for the Christian should lead to a right loving of the truth. Knowing the Person of truth, Jesus Christ, moves the heart to greater love and affection for all revealed truth, both in the created order and special revelation.
The knowledge we gain in study should move from an intellectual ascent of the truth to a deeper love for the truth. The bright burning of Christian affections are aimed for the glory of God and the benefit of others. Love for God should be evidenced in the the hearts of individual Christians as they respond to God’s Word in repentance, faith, and worship. It should also manifest itself in the local church congregation through our engagement in worship and response to the expositional teaching and preaching of the Scriptures. A deep and ever deepening affectionate love for God’s truth is what it means to love the Lord with all your heart.
Living: A Right Application of Knowledge
How we act reveals where our love and affections lie. This works in reverse as well: what we love affects how we live. In the Christian’s worldview, the way we live is not to be neglected in our pursuit of God. Actions, therefore, carry significance in both helping to shape and strengthen beliefs. Too often in Christian discipleship, however, the focus of spiritual formation and health rests in the education of the mind. Sadly, we often ignore the powerful affect actions have in our lives.
Biblical discipleship should not only impact what we believe, but how we live as well. Applying God’s Word helps solidify the knowledge and affections of believers and a local church body. Service and worship are the right and holy outcomes of knowing and loving God.
Jesus makes these principles clear when he tells the disciples, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Knowledge and love are manifest through the spiritual disciplines and acts of service for others. Or to put it another way, what we know and believe is apparent in our choices. Rightly applying holy affections for God through daily choices is what it looks like to live the Christian life.
Conclusion
Christians should use the Great Commandment to evaluate their personal spiritual life, their small group (whatever form that takes), and their local church body’s health. The three categories listed above provide a helpful summary and grid of the Great Commandment to gauge where each relationship is currently and where growth and development is needed.
[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Becoming Real Theologians,” in The Trials of Theology: Becoming a ‘Proven Worker’ in a Dangerous Business, ed. Andrew J.B. Cameron and Brian S. Rosner,(Glasgow: Christian Focus Publications, 2010), 73.
