“All we need to is to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love each other as Jesus loves us, and the rest will follow.”
So we need to do is keep his commandments and love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and then love each other as Jesus loves us? So the Beatles were right when they sang “all we need is love?” That’s it? That’s all God demands? I wish I had known that a long time ago. For decades I’ve been going around believing we had to do something hard.
/s
FRiend, the Bible tells us the law is a curse (Deuteronomy 27:26, Galatians 3:10) That’s because the Bible tells us if we offend the law at only one little point we are guilty of breaking the whole law (James 2:10). Men who attempt to keep the law for salvation quickly realize the utter futility of their task. No mere man can possibly keep the whole law perfectly, but that is precisely what our Holy Holy Holy God demands. And you know what, that is a wonderful thing! Because of where it leads us, we should love God’s law! Galatians 3:24 teaches the law is a schoolmaster designed to drive us to Christ by faith.
“The Law was our schoolmaster, to bring us unto CHRIST, that we might be justified by FAITH.” (Galatians 3:24)
So the Beatles were right when they sang “all we need is love?” That’s it? That’s all God demands?
Well, the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. /s
There was more to my comment than that one line taken out of context.
As I stated, we need to have faith in God and follow His commandments. Jesus tells us Himself: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” (Matthew 19:17) It is in following His commandments that we love God and each other. The first of the Ten Commandments tell us to love God and the others tell us to love our neighbor. I presume you know what Jesus tells us is the New Commandment, to “love one another as I have loved you.” You also probably know what He says the greatest and first commandment is, and that the second is like it. He further tells us “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40)
It is true that “if we offend the law at only one little point we are guilty of breaking the whole law.” We all do this at one time or another. But through God’s saving grace, we can be forgiven.
So no, the Beatles were not right. Love is not all we need. We are justified by faith. But as Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians: “if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:2) In the end, “faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Cor. 13:13.