Love for God as the first commandment in the Bible

Ovaj rad želi pružiti jedan povijesni presjek misli i ideja o ljubavi. Pritom se ne donosi iscrpan kronološki red misli o ljubavi, nego se fokusira na relevantne etape i ocrtava se geneza modernog shvaćanja ljubavi kao slobodnog čina i biblijskog shva-ćanja ljubavi kao zapovijedi. Na taj se način želi pokazati da se dva shvaćanja ne sukobljavaju, nego nadopunjuju te da biblijsko shvaćanje ljubavi kao zapovijedi nije antropološki ili teološki problem. Stoga se u radu donose neki ključni starozavjetni tekstovi koji su ili oblikovali shvaćanje ljubavi ili su plod shvaćanja ljubavi nekog povijesnog razdoblja, te se tako osvjetljava pozadina biblijske zapovijedi ljubavi prema Bogu.The word love abounds with various meanings, recalls various experiences including thousands of shades and thousands of variations, depending on the culture and time. The reader of the Bible, the Old and New Testament, encounters the word love in different life situations, especially in the first commandment – according to the expression coined in the New Testament (Mt 22, 36; Mk 12, 28). To modern man, connection of the word “love” with the word “commandment” poses a certain difficulty, since love is connected with freedom and not with an obligation. This alone remark reveals the distance that separates our sensitivity from the biblical world. Is it really possible to command that one should love God? Can love that is commanded be real and honest love? To get closer to the right answer, we will first try to see the difference in our perception of love, starting from the time of romanticism and the time of ancient world. Then, we will try to show the background of biblical commandment of love