My motive to keep the law is love.
Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Not duty.
If you look at the law and each commandment they can be a burden to the flesh because the flesh is selfish.
But to the Spirit it is a delight.
It reflects the character of Jesus. It is holy, and just, and good.
Rom 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
I think the grave mistake people make is trying to define love as a feeling, something arbitrary that is dependent of each individual.
God said there are not any greater commandments than to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and love our neighbor. People take this as personal devotion and feelings.
Mat 22:27 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is
the first and great commandment. 39 And
the second
is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
But Jesus was quoting OT
Deut6:5 Lev 19:18
So they are grounded in OT principles, not new ones.
When it comes to loving someone, is it based on what we feel on how we are to love someone or should it be based on what that person tells us is how to love them. In the case of God, He only taught loving Him with the accordance of keeping His commandments. So how can we love God with all our heart, soul and mind but not keep His commandments. The answer is plainly you can't. So to separate the greatest commandments to love God with our all, from the commandments where God tells us how to love Him, is sadly a very deceitful doctrine.
The first time God introduces this principle of how we are to love Him is right in the Testimony of God - written by God, spoken by God. God literally tells us how to love Him so its impossible to separate the greatest commandments from the commandments on how God tells us to love Him.
Exo 20:6 but showing mercy to thousands,
to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
If we look at the first time loving God with all our heart, mind and soul was stated, what was happening when this was stated.
The Ten Commandments right where love to God was written down by God Himself was repeated- 40 years after God have them His commandments both spoken by God and written by God.
After they were repeated this was stated...
Deut 6:1 “Now this
is the commandment,
and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you, that
you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2
that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and [a]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
4 “Hear, O Israel: [
b]The Lord our God, the Lord
is one! 5
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Keep God's commands in your heart
Teach them to your children
Talk about them daily
Let His Word guide your life constantly
And it includes the 4th commandment, because the greatest commandments to love God with all their heart, mind and soul was the condition of the Israelites receiving their inheritance:
Now this
is the commandment,
and these are the statutes and judgments which the Lord your God has commanded to teach you
, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, 2
that you may fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. 3 Therefore hear, O Israel, and [a]be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
But what happened, did they love God with all their heart, mind and soul and received their inheritance?
Sadly many did not because....
Eze 20:15 So I also raised My hand in an oath to them in the wilderness,
that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, ‘flowing with milk and honey,’ the glory of all lands, 16
because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes
, but profaned My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.
The Sabbath is part of the greatest commandments to love God with all our heart, mind and soul. Profaning the Sabbath God relates to breaking another commandment- idol worship because we are replacing the words of God with another voice.
The devil is trying to take away our inheritance as well that we have not yet entered Rev22:13KJV
Will we listen to the same voices that deceived those in the wilderness we are told not to follow in their example of disobedience
Heb4:11 or will we join ourselves to the LORD
Isa 56:6 and stay faithful to Him not forgetting something He asked us to Remember.
Exo20:8-11 and keep if we love Him
Exo20:6 both written and spoken by God. God tells us how to love Him- will we beleive Him is the bigger question.