The Power of Love 2
Channel: Theophilus Lambo
Date: 2017-05-30

The Pharisees however had lost sight of what was really the important heart of this commandment which was loving God with all their heart, soul and mind. Without that love for God, the external observance of the Commandments becomes worthless, empty and legalism.
Some Christians try to do the right thing because they think God will punish them if they don't. While the Word does say God chastens or punishes every child He loves, (Hebrews 12:5-7) this is the wrong motive for obeying our Heavenly Father. This is the type of obedience a slave gives. Other Christians make the effort to do what is right because they believe they will be blessed for doing so. This is effectively like obeying God because He is paying them to do so. Their relationship with God resembles more that of a servant than a member of His family. It is better than not obeying God at all but falls a long way short of the intimate love relationship God desires to have with us. To love God supremely begins with the heart and by being cleansed on the inside first.
Jesus explains this really well in Matthew 23:25-28 saying, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.  You blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”