Karaster, you ask if we have the love of God? That reminded me of this writing from 119 ministries.
Do You Love God?
Absurd question right? Don't we all love God? Biblically though, what does that really mean? Does God define how He wants to be loved, or do we? Does loving God matter at all, or is it all about God loving us (grace)?
Mat 22:35 - 38 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 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.
Do we love God with Biblical definitions or do we love God with our own definition of love? This matters, right? So what definition are we using? I believe we may have put so much emphasis on God’s grace that we sometimes forget how to love Him back.
1Jn 4:19 We love Him, because He first loved us.
So because of His love through grace, this should cause us to love Him back, right? This begs the question “How do we love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind? This is, after all, the Number ONE COMMANDMENT. And shame on us if we cannot get the #1 commandment correct.
So how do we love Him? Is there a practical answer to this question or are we left with self-determined philosophical definitions of love?
How much does God play a role in answering on how He wants to be loved?
You have probably heard that the best way to interpret the Bible is through the Bible itself. So, in order to better understand what our Lord’s definition of what love is let’s look at the 7 scriptures written by the apostle John, with the first 4 of Jesus speaking.
1. Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
2. Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
3. Joh 14:23-24 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
4. Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
5. 1Jn 2:4-5 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6. 1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
7. 2Jn 1:6 And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
It should be obvious that loving God is by keeping His commandments. This strips away all philosophical or self-determined definitions of love. When we disobey or ignore His Word we are in fact showing Him we do not love Him, regardless the loving things we might say about Him or to Him in puplic or private . It is our obedience to Him that reveals our love to Him. It is not our loving words or good intentions or deeds.
Why do you think Jesus said this to the Pharisees? Mar 7:6-8 This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
What would you think if your spouse told you that they love you but always ignored what you like and did whatever they wanted to do day after day without ever considering your wishes? What if they did whatever they want based on their own ideas on how they decided how to love you? Their profession of love would not mean much. You would know they are lying or they don’t really know what the word love means.
1Jn 2:4-5 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
So it is the same when we tell Jesus how much we love Him while ignoring or disobeying His Word to do whatever we want to do.
To make matters worse, Satan has taken advantage of our Biblical ignorance of love and it has become wilfull disobedience through overall confusion and has formed a very unbiblical theology that persuades Christians through various movements, programs, peer church organizations that proclaiming and obeying God’s commandments is not love at all, but in fact, legalism. You might even hear pastors say that God’s commandments are a scrary list of do’s and don’t do’s. Instead, we are sometimes told we should focus on grace and His love for us.
Sadly, by down-playing the commandments we are in fact down-playing the love of God.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
Many times I have read here in CC the idea “don’t focus so much on God’s commandments, but just focus on grace.” But what are they really saying? They are saying we should not focus on loving God, but instead focus on being loved by God.
Grace is God’s love for us. No debate!!! Keep in mind that God’s commandments are our love to Him and to others, which we have already scripturally established.
So, perhaps the next time you read “Don’t focus so much on God’s commandments”, we should ask “Why shouldn’t I focus on loving God and others? Sadly, they are in effect saying with their lips “I only care about God loving me and not loving Him back”. Surely, no one wants to be saying such things!! But if you really want to love God, then keep His Commandments. I am not saying that, the Bible is.
Some people actually praise God in the belief that God has abolished His Law. In reality, God defines His own character in His own heart through the law that He gave us, yet some praise Him for abolishing it. It is the same image that we are to conform to and following God’s will is going after Him in His own heart.
Act 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.
Are you interested in knowing and going after God’s own heart and do you want to be after God’s own heart? Then I hope you will read all of what David wrote in Psalms 119. It is a long chapter, actually, the longest chapter in the whole Bible. It is completely dedicated to loving God through His law. Psalms 119 does not look like anything you see streaming out of mainstream pulpit too often. Sadly today, the church is not likely to generate too many David’s.
So if the greatest commandment is to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and loving God is actually defined by the Bible as keeping all of His commandments, perhaps there is only one thing left to say:
Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
(Transcribed from 119ministries.com video teaching.)
