Supreme Loyalty to God

MEMORY VERSE: “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” —Mark 12:29,30

EXODUS 20:3; I KINGS 18:17-21; MATTHEW 4:8-10; MARK 12:28-30

THE First Commandment given to Israel—“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Ex. 20:3)—expresses the thought of supreme loyalty to God so far as worship is concerned. We usually think of other gods as being those gods of the heathen, but actually any interests or desires which we cherish to the extent that they draw us away from our devotion to our Heavenly Father would be in the nature of other gods, idols which our wayward hearts set up in the place of God.

The ancient Israelites were prone to drift away from their God and to worship other gods, especially Baal. Time and again they were punished for this, and time and again faithful servants of the Lord would bring about reforms within the nation and direct the Israelites back to a worship and service of the true God. Elijah was one of these. He served as prophet during the reign of Ahab, the wicked king of Israel.

At the instigation of his wife, Jezebel, Ahab had led the nation almost completely into the worship of Baal, although the Lord revealed to Elijah that there were still seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to this false god. At Mount Carmel Elijah offered sacrifice to Israel’s God, who manifested his acceptance by sending fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice. The Israelites were impressed, and fell down on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God.” (I Kings 18:39) Prior to this demonstration Elijah called upon the people to decide between Jehovah and Baal, but they answered him not a word.—I Kings 18:21

Satan, the Adversary, endeavored to entice Jesus away from his course of full loyalty to his Heavenly Father. Emerging from the wilderness forty days after his baptism Jesus was confronted by Satan with three temptations. One of these is referred to in our lesson. Satan said to Jesus that if he would worship him he would give him all the kingdoms of this world. This was a very subtle temptation and bore directly on the Master’s allegiance to his Heavenly Father.

Jesus knew the Father’s plan for the world. His Father had said, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” (Ps. 2:8) From this and other promises of God, Jesus knew that eventually he would be the supreme Ruler of earth, but he knew also that the way to this exaltation was to be through suffering and death, and not by bowing down to Satan. So Jesus’ reply to the Adversary was, “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” Thus did Jesus pass this severe test of supreme loyalty to his God.

The scribes and the Pharisees were generally opposed to Jesus, but occasionally one of them displayed interest in what he had to say. This was true of the scribe who asked him which was the first commandment, meaning, apparently, the most important commandment. Jesus’ reply was direct. He quoted Moses’ summary of all the commandments as they related to man’s relationship to God.—Deut. 6:4,5

Our memory verse contains this quotation. It calls for supreme love for God; a love that we give with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. What an all-out and comprehensive devotion this describes! The Bible uses the heart to symbolize our motives, and to serve the Lord with our whole heart would denote that our every motive in life is to glorify him.

To serve the Lord with all our soul means to serve him with all our being. All that we have and are should be devoted to the Lord. This, of course, includes our mind. Our every thought should be directed toward God and to the doing of his will. Everything which we think, and say, and do should be to the glory of God. And this should be with all our strength; that is, not in a half-hearted manner, but with energy and zeal.

QUESTIONS

Is it possible for a Christian to set up idols in his heart?

How did Elijah restore true worship in Israel?

How did Satan tempt Jesus to worship him?

What is the “first commandment”?

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