Matthew 22:35-38 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’ Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’”

Popular atheists like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris insist that people can be good without God. You don’t have to believe in God to be moral. If by “good” and “moral” they mean “live as decent citizens and good neighbors,” we don’t have to argue with them. Not every atheist is a criminal, not even most of them.

But if God exists (and we know he does), you aren’t being good by denying the existence of the One who gave you your life and everything else. Would I be a good child if I denied the existence of the mother who gave me birth, or the father who provided for me all the years I was growing up? Everything we are and have starts with God. Everything good and right starts with him as well.

That doesn’t mean it is enough to acknowledge he exists, or to give him a few moments of our time now and then. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus says. He underscores the idea that God is our first and ultimate concern. Beginning with our heart, the center of all our desires and affections; spreading to the soul, the source of our life and self-consciousness; and including the mind, our entire thinking and reasoning, God wants our love for him to permeate our entire selves. There is no part we get to hold back for ourselves or someone else.

Jesus is actually quoting Moses’ farewell speech in Deuteronomy. In it Moses gives a few practical examples of how this works. Such love for God is the first thing we want to impress upon our children. It is infinitely more important than getting them into a good school, taking them to music lessons, or involving them in sports.

When we get up in the morning, or when we go to bed at night, this is what we should be thinking about, so this is what we should be talking about. The same goes for when we are hanging out at home, or when we are traveling someplace else.

Because we love God so much we wouldn’t think of holding a private opinion that contradicts his. Instead, we might paste his words in front of our eyes to keep our thoughts in line. We might tie them on our hands so that we can’t use them without thinking of him. We might even decorate our homes with reminders of what he says.

How are we doing, by Jesus’ standards? Do we love him above all? Be honest. We can go hours, even days, hardly conscious he exists.

Whose “word” means the most to us–some politician, a friend, a so-called “expert in the field,” our own? Be honest. Do we want what he wants, no matter what we have to sacrifice, no matter what the cost? Or do we keep a reserve cellar in our heart’s basement filled with vintage vices? We may not be enjoying them at the moment, but we have no intention of dumping them out, either. Be honest.

This may be the greatest commandment in the law, but that doesn’t mean we come anywhere near keeping it. Failure to admit we fall short only compounds our failure. We are like sin addicts living in denial. We resist treatment. We fear the demands of recovery.

That is why Jesus was sitting there on that day. His love, and his love alone, passes the test. He was just three days away from the cross when he answered this question. He was in Jerusalem not so much to show us how to distinguish right from wrong, as he was to rescue us from the wrongs we have committed. He came to make us right with God.

Jesus’ dying love forgives our sins and removes our guilt. We may not love God above all, but he has loved us as though we were first and dearest to him. We have no greater reason to love him.