What Are the Fundamentals of the Christian Faith? Starting With the Greatest Commandment
Adapted from: Worship God by Sam Holm
If you stripped Christianity down to its most essential truth, what would you find? Jesus answered that question directly when He was asked which commandment matters most. His answer is simple, but it changes everything.
Why Going Back to Basics Matters
In 1961, Vince Lombardi walked into a room full of professional NFL players and said, "Gentlemen, this is a football." He took his team back to the most fundamental truths of the sport. That year, they went on to win the championship 37 to nothing. He repeated this approach every season after.
The same principle applies to faith. Whether you are a lifelong Christian or someone exploring faith for the very first time, returning to the foundational truths of Christianity is not a step backward. It is the foundation everything else is built on.
What Was Jesus Being Asked and Why Does It Matter?
In Matthew 22, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. They sent a lawyer to ask Him a question designed to catch Him in a contradiction. With 619 commandments in the Jewish law, they asked: which one is the greatest?
Jesus did not hesitate.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." - Matthew 22:37-40
Everything else in Scripture depends on these two things. You cannot score a touchdown without the football. You cannot live out the Christian faith without love at the center.
What Kind of Love Is Jesus Talking About?
The word Jesus uses here is agape. This is not the way the world typically uses the word love.
Agape is sacrificial love. It gives rather than takes. It is not based on feelings alone but on a committed, wholehearted choice to honor God and others above yourself.
Why Does God Ask Us to Love Him?
This is where the command becomes deeply personal. God does not ask for love from a distance. He asks for love in response to love He has already shown.
"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16
When God gave the command to love Him in Deuteronomy 6, He had already led His people out of slavery in Egypt. He had already shown up for them. The command to love was a response to love already given.
For Christians today, the same is true on an even deeper level. God has led us out of slavery to sin. He sent His Son to die in our place. He has prepared an eternal home for us. The call to love Him is a response to everything He has already done.
What Does "With All Your Heart, Soul, and Mind" Actually Mean?
Some teachers break these three parts down individually, exploring what it means to love God with your heart, your soul, and your mind separately. That is a worthwhile study.
But the primary point Jesus is making is not the division of these parts. It is the totality of them. He is calling for wholehearted, all-encompassing devotion. Nothing held back. Every part of who you are offered to God.
In the original Hebrew of Deuteronomy 6, the word often translated as "mind" or "strength" carried a physical dimension as well. It was not just internal. It was active. That is why in some versions of this command you will see four elements listed rather than three, including both mind and strength. The point remains the same: love God with everything you have and everything you are.
Paul echoes this in Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
That is worship. Not just singing on a Sunday morning, but offering all of yourself to God as a living response to His love for you.
What Does Worship Actually Look Like in Everyday Life?
Worship is not limited to a church building or a Sunday service. Worship is what happens when you love God with your whole being, in every area of your life.
When we gather together, worship looks like:
Colossians 3:14-16 puts it this way: "Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
When you sing in a room full of believers, you are not just expressing your own love for God. You are speaking truth over the people standing next to you. Corporate worship is a shared act of love.
What Does Personal Worship Look Like Outside of Church?
Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength also happens in private. It happens in the daily rhythms of your life.
Research from the Center for Bible Engagement surveyed 40,000 people and found striking differences between those who read the Bible three times a week or less versus four or more times a week. Among those reading four or more times per week:
If you spend more time with the One who loves you than with everything else competing for your attention, your life changes. That is not a program. That is a relationship.
A Story of What Wholehearted Love for God Looks Like
There was a woman named Miss Maddie. She had lived a hard life. She was single until her 50s, then widowed. She was born with a major deformity in her leg that was eventually amputated. By every measure, she had reasons to be bitter or distant from God.
But whenever people came to visit her, it was clear that worship had already been happening before they arrived. One day, Miss Maddie fell in her bathtub and could not get out. She was there through the night. When her nephew came the next morning and found her, she was singing. When asked what she was doing, she said simply: "I was having a worship service."
That is what it looks like to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not just when it is convenient. Not just on Sunday mornings. But in every moment, in every circumstance.
Life Application
This week, choose one specific area where you will offer more of yourself to God in worship. It might be engaging more fully when you gather with other believers. It might be committing to reading your Bible four or more times this week. It might be simply pausing each morning to thank God for His love before the day begins.
The challenge is this: identify one place where you have been holding back, and give that area to God this week as an act of love and worship.
Ask yourself these questions as you reflect:
Everything in the Christian life depends on this foundation. Love God. Love others. That is the football. Everything else builds from here.
If you stripped Christianity down to its most essential truth, what would you find? Jesus answered that question directly when He was asked which commandment matters most. His answer is simple, but it changes everything.
Why Going Back to Basics Matters
In 1961, Vince Lombardi walked into a room full of professional NFL players and said, "Gentlemen, this is a football." He took his team back to the most fundamental truths of the sport. That year, they went on to win the championship 37 to nothing. He repeated this approach every season after.
The same principle applies to faith. Whether you are a lifelong Christian or someone exploring faith for the very first time, returning to the foundational truths of Christianity is not a step backward. It is the foundation everything else is built on.
What Was Jesus Being Asked and Why Does It Matter?
In Matthew 22, the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. They sent a lawyer to ask Him a question designed to catch Him in a contradiction. With 619 commandments in the Jewish law, they asked: which one is the greatest?
Jesus did not hesitate.
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." - Matthew 22:37-40
Everything else in Scripture depends on these two things. You cannot score a touchdown without the football. You cannot live out the Christian faith without love at the center.
What Kind of Love Is Jesus Talking About?
The word Jesus uses here is agape. This is not the way the world typically uses the word love.
- The world defines love by emotion. Jesus defines love by devotion.
- The world measures love by acceptance. Jesus measures love by obedience.
- The world says love means being true to yourself. Jesus says love means giving yourself.
Agape is sacrificial love. It gives rather than takes. It is not based on feelings alone but on a committed, wholehearted choice to honor God and others above yourself.
Why Does God Ask Us to Love Him?
This is where the command becomes deeply personal. God does not ask for love from a distance. He asks for love in response to love He has already shown.
"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19
"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16
When God gave the command to love Him in Deuteronomy 6, He had already led His people out of slavery in Egypt. He had already shown up for them. The command to love was a response to love already given.
For Christians today, the same is true on an even deeper level. God has led us out of slavery to sin. He sent His Son to die in our place. He has prepared an eternal home for us. The call to love Him is a response to everything He has already done.
What Does "With All Your Heart, Soul, and Mind" Actually Mean?
Some teachers break these three parts down individually, exploring what it means to love God with your heart, your soul, and your mind separately. That is a worthwhile study.
But the primary point Jesus is making is not the division of these parts. It is the totality of them. He is calling for wholehearted, all-encompassing devotion. Nothing held back. Every part of who you are offered to God.
In the original Hebrew of Deuteronomy 6, the word often translated as "mind" or "strength" carried a physical dimension as well. It was not just internal. It was active. That is why in some versions of this command you will see four elements listed rather than three, including both mind and strength. The point remains the same: love God with everything you have and everything you are.
Paul echoes this in Romans 12:1: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
That is worship. Not just singing on a Sunday morning, but offering all of yourself to God as a living response to His love for you.
What Does Worship Actually Look Like in Everyday Life?
Worship is not limited to a church building or a Sunday service. Worship is what happens when you love God with your whole being, in every area of your life.
When we gather together, worship looks like:
- Engaging with the teaching of God's Word
- Singing truth over yourself and the people around you
- Praying and staying in active conversation with God
Colossians 3:14-16 puts it this way: "Above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony... Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
When you sing in a room full of believers, you are not just expressing your own love for God. You are speaking truth over the people standing next to you. Corporate worship is a shared act of love.
What Does Personal Worship Look Like Outside of Church?
Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength also happens in private. It happens in the daily rhythms of your life.
Research from the Center for Bible Engagement surveyed 40,000 people and found striking differences between those who read the Bible three times a week or less versus four or more times a week. Among those reading four or more times per week:
- Loneliness dropped 30%
- Anger issues dropped 32%
- Bitterness in relationships dropped 40%
- Alcohol consumption dropped 57%
- Feeling spiritually stagnant dropped 60%
- Viewing pornography dropped 60%
- Sharing their faith increased 20%
- Commitment to discipling others jumped 200%
If you spend more time with the One who loves you than with everything else competing for your attention, your life changes. That is not a program. That is a relationship.
A Story of What Wholehearted Love for God Looks Like
There was a woman named Miss Maddie. She had lived a hard life. She was single until her 50s, then widowed. She was born with a major deformity in her leg that was eventually amputated. By every measure, she had reasons to be bitter or distant from God.
But whenever people came to visit her, it was clear that worship had already been happening before they arrived. One day, Miss Maddie fell in her bathtub and could not get out. She was there through the night. When her nephew came the next morning and found her, she was singing. When asked what she was doing, she said simply: "I was having a worship service."
That is what it looks like to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not just when it is convenient. Not just on Sunday mornings. But in every moment, in every circumstance.
Life Application
This week, choose one specific area where you will offer more of yourself to God in worship. It might be engaging more fully when you gather with other believers. It might be committing to reading your Bible four or more times this week. It might be simply pausing each morning to thank God for His love before the day begins.
The challenge is this: identify one place where you have been holding back, and give that area to God this week as an act of love and worship.
Ask yourself these questions as you reflect:
- Am I loving God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, or am I holding something back?
- Is my worship limited to Sunday mornings, or does it show up in my daily life?
- How much time am I spending with God in His Word compared to everything else competing for my attention?
- What would it look like for me to offer my whole self to God this week, not just the parts that feel easy?
Everything in the Christian life depends on this foundation. Love God. Love others. That is the football. Everything else builds from here.
Posted in New Testament
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