New Year - How Should I Live?

It’s a new year and I find that many of us are asking ourselves what kind of resolutions to make.  It’s been several days since the new year and I imagine that some of us have already broken the resolutions we made or reached an age of not making any new resolutions.

Either way, it is important to start the new year mindful of how we should live.  How do you answer the question, “How should I live?”  A Christian should answer this question saying something near to “by following the Lord’s purpose for me, or in me.”  The problem then becomes people who don’t do anything because they are not sure what their purpose is.  However, this should never stop a Christian from moving forward or living for God.  We should be growing where we are planted, wherever it happens to be.

One clear direction was given to everyone by Jesus as He responded to Pharisees trying to trick Him.  They asked Him what is the great or first commandment?  Jesus answered this with two commandments.  The account of this is given in Matthew 22 and Mark 12.

²⁸ Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”

²⁹ Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. ³¹ And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31

Jesus is quoting Moses from Deuteronomy regarding the first and great commandment.

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:4-5

If we apply this to how we are to live, then 1) We are to love God, and 2) We are to love others.  Let’s look at these.

I.    Love God.

a.       The account in Mark quoting Deuteronomy says, “The Lord is one.”  There is one God.  There is only one God.  There is no room for two gods or any more gods.  In fact, you may call them gods but they are idols, because there is only one God. 

I am the Lord, and there is no other; There is no God besides Me. – Isaiah 45:5a

¹⁸ For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.

¹⁹ I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. – Isaiah 45:18-19

There is only one God.  It doesn’t matter how smart we think we are; it doesn’t matter how well we reason who things were made; it doesn’t matter we are able to build and change and do.  We are still man and He is still God. 

He alone is God and the only God that has ever or will ever exist is Him.

“Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other.” – Isaiah 45:22

b.       “Love the Lord your God.”  The only God that exists is your God.  He is personal to you.  You and Him have a relationship.  You communicate with each other.  You walk and talk.  You are not alone.  The old hymn In the Garden sings,

“And He walks with me, and He talks with me,

And He tells me I am His own;

And the joy we share as we tarry there,

None other has ever known.”

Isaiah 45:3 says, “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.”

Love your God.  Make a commitment.  Don’t want to love God or hope to love God.  Do it.  Love Him.  Desire your God.  Seek your God.  Long for Him.  Love your God.

What does love look like?  1 Corinthians 13:4-7 tells:

⁴ Love suffers long and is kind;

      Are you willing to suffer in love for God?  Are His purposes and ways more than your ways?  Are you kind to God?

love does not envy;

      Do you envy God?  Does it frustrate you when you don’t know what to do or when to do what perfectly?  Are you willing to let God know everything and be the only God?

love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;

      Are you willing to let God get the glory for everything in your life?  Do you stand tall on your accomplishments?  Or do you make sure that it is abundantly clear that it is your God in your life and His work that does all things?

⁵ does not behave rudely,

      Do you rudely not listen to your God?  When He calls to you, do you let Him know that you’ll get to Him when you can, or do you stop where you are and take that call?  When God asks you to do something, do you consider His request and evaluate if that fits into your life, or do you do it even if you don’t understand why?  Are you rude to your God?

does not seek its own,

      Do you seek your own way?  Your own things?  Your own friends?  Your own commandments?  Or, … Your own glory?

is not provoked,

      Does loving God irritate you or frustrate you?  Does it make you angry to know some of His commandments? 

thinks no evil;

      It is hard to imagine even thinking something evil towards God. 

⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

      Do you rejoice in truth?  Do you rejoice in God’s Word?  Do you celebrate God’s commandments?  Is it your pleasure to know His instructions for your life?  Does it bring you joy to know His plan of salvation?  Does the name Jesus draw you or repel you?

⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

      Are you willing to suffer for your God?  If things don’t work out like you want them to, or if people don’t like you because of, or if you have to give or go somewhere you don’t want to, … are you willing to do so in love for your God?

We are to love our God.

c.       “With all your heart”.  Love your God, the only God, will all of your reality. 

The word heart is defined in the Bible as the central, defining element of you as a human.  It embraces your entire selfhood.  Karl Barth defines heart as, “not merely a, but the reality of man, both wholly of soul and wholly of body.”

⁴³ “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴ Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵ A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. – Luke 6:43-45

Is all of your reality, all that defines who you are loving God?  Does everything in your heart point to God?

d.       “With all your … mind”.  Do you love God with the knowledge that you have and in how you use it?  Do you seek to gain more knowledge of God deliberately?  Do you love God for His wisdoms that you know and can apply to your daily living?  Do you seek the “renewing of our minds” as Paul advised?  Do you love God in your thoughts?  Do you seek to love God in your thoughts or do you want your thoughts?

e.       “With all your … soul”.  The word soul means “life”.  It is the life essence of the body.  At the hour of death the soul is removed and continues on.  The question for us here is do we love God with all of the life within us.  Do our spiritual and emotional experiences reflect God?  Do our emotions, which come from that life within us, reflect our love for God?

f.        “With all your … strength”.  Do our actions represent our love for God?  In James 2:17 we are told, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”  Do your actions flow from your faith?  Do they represent your faith and show your love for your God

II.    Love Others.

I am absolutely convinced that if we get the first one right, the second one will come naturally.  Loving others will flow out of our love for God.  As we grow closer to Him and His Word, we will do what He does, and that is love people.  God is in the people loving business.  He loves people.  When we are close to God, we will love people. 

God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. – John 3:16

God loves people just as they are.  When we love the one God, our God, with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, we will love people.  If we don’t love people, then there is something wrong in our love relationship with God.  It is that simple.

In Matthew 25:31-46 we are given the story of the sheep and the goats.  Isn’t Jesus saying, the sheep are those who loved others, as He does and the goats are those who didn’t love others, as He does?  And so, the sheep go with Him and the goats go to the lake of fire.

III    Everything Points to This

“On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”  All the written Mosaic Law that is in the Old Testament and all the workings through the Prophets, all of it, is contained in these two commandments.  Wow.  The Bible says we are stubborn people and tainted with sin (given to it). 

This new year, if I’ll focus on loving God correctly, I’ll then love my neighbors correctly, and in doing so I’ll start living in the purpose of all of the Old Testament Law and work of the Prophets. 

Conclusion

So, how should I live?  How should you live?  What are your resolutions this new year?  How can you incorporate ways to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” into your daily routine?  How can you create habits for loving God intentionally?