“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
We cannot weaken the flesh: but we can, and we must, strengthen the spirit, so that it may subdue and control, the flesh. To begin with, we are all flesh: “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind,” like the beast of the field, knowing nothing better or higher. We build the strength of the spirit by the intense love of God. There is no other way. And love of God, in effective strength, comes by much study and meditation on His Word. The one great command of life is: “Love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, ALL thy mind, ALL thy life, and ALL thy strength.” This is not a command in the ordinary sense of a requirement by someone else for their purposes and benefit. Rather it is divine loving advice on the only possible way of escape out of death into life. An intense, life-dominating love of God is the only power in the universe that can overcome the flesh, and the promise of God’s glorious eternal future is only to “him that overcometh”.
— GVG
Though we cannot see Him, we can love Him; we must, it is the first and the great commandment, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart.” True brethren and sisters are God lovers and God worshippers. Men who do not love and worship God are not His children. All other spiritual attainments go for nothing. How can knowledge or strength or cleverness commend a man to God? “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him.” All the teachings of the law and the prophets converge upon God. Look at the encampment in the wilderness; the Tabernacle was the central object, and the kernel of the Tabernacle was the glory of God between the cherubim. All the sacrifices, all the utensils, all the furniture, everything connected with the Tabernacle, looked to God, which is a lesson in parable remaining good for all time. Men knowing the truth, whose hearts are not fixed upon God, are mere doctrine-mongers.
— Robert Roberts, The Christadelphian: Volume 32. 2001, c1895.
Hear Now These Words 