"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment" (Mark 12:30)

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Old Testament

Exodus 20:3-5  
You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
Psalm 95:6  
O come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
Daniel 3:14-17, 19-20, 24-26, 28  
Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? …If you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?”

Shadrach Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king….”

Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego…. And he commanded certain mighty men of valor who were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into the burning fiery furnace…. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.” “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God….”

Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire…. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and delivered His servants who have trusted in Him…that they should not serve nor worship any god except their own God!”  

The New Testament

Matthew 18:20  
Where two or three are gathered together in My name I am there in the midst of them.”
Mark 12:30  
“‘And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.’”

The Heavenly Doctrines

Arcana Coelestia 1618  
A person is worshiping all the time if love and charity abide in him.
Revelation 22:14  
Blessed are those who do His commandments.