Not sure if this was posted, so here goes again...
Do we need words to love God? Is loving God like following the words of a recipe to bake a cake? Do we need to know what the ingredients are? Or has love been in us all along, like Dorothy’s magic slippers in The Wizard of Oz?
Jesus tells his disciples to spread the Word of God. That Word includes the first commandment of Jesus, that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But if we must be commanded to love God, is it really the love that most of us are familiar with?
We do not love our spouses and our children because we were commanded to. The love we have for them is in us. But with God, it’s as if Jesus says to us, ‘There is God, over there. Now love Him with all your heart, soul and mind.’ Reminds me of a lyric in one of George Harrison’s songs when he was one of The Beatles: “If I needed someone to love, you’re the one that I’d be thinking of…if I needed someone.” Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?
I tell you there is no thinking in pure love. Love comes not from the mind, but from the heart. And it is to our hearts that God looks to see what is in us, not our minds. Under God, the mind may someday come to know what is in the heart, and we learn of God through the mind.
Unlike the mind, the heart knows no words…it just feels.
We can all be one with God through love, as Colossians 3:14 says, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
A day will come when those of us who are left will love God continuously, without interruption. And this is what God wants, that we may all come to love Him. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…” But if this is something that we must know, instead of feel, is God in this passage putting out His wares for us to see, and to make a choice? Did anyone ever have a jealous girlfriend who said, ‘It’s either her of me?’ Then again, God says in Exodus 20:5 that He is “a jealous God.” God, in a sense, then, makes the same demand on us as does a jealous girlfriend.
It seems that God in the Old Testament implores us to love Him or else, and in the New Testament we learn in passages like 1 John 4:8 that God is love, and Jesus tells us to just love Him.
With loving God comes faith in Him, more so than our faith in our families. Jesus in Matthew 10:37 says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” But Jesus gave us the second commandment which is to love eachother as we love ourselves, for this, along with loving God, is the pathway to Him. So, we place loving God above loving eachother, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t love eachother.
But these are all words. With loving God and eachother, actions speak louder than words.
Do we need words to love God? Is loving God like following the words of a recipe to bake a cake? Do we need to know what the ingredients are? Or has love been in us all along, like Dorothy’s magic slippers in The Wizard of Oz?
Jesus tells his disciples to spread the Word of God. That Word includes the first commandment of Jesus, that we love God with all our heart, soul and mind. But if we must be commanded to love God, is it really the love that most of us are familiar with?
We do not love our spouses and our children because we were commanded to. The love we have for them is in us. But with God, it’s as if Jesus says to us, ‘There is God, over there. Now love Him with all your heart, soul and mind.’ Reminds me of a lyric in one of George Harrison’s songs when he was one of The Beatles: “If I needed someone to love, you’re the one that I’d be thinking of…if I needed someone.” Doesn’t seem to make sense, does it?
I tell you there is no thinking in pure love. Love comes not from the mind, but from the heart. And it is to our hearts that God looks to see what is in us, not our minds. Under God, the mind may someday come to know what is in the heart, and we learn of God through the mind.
Unlike the mind, the heart knows no words…it just feels.
We can all be one with God through love, as Colossians 3:14 says, “And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”
A day will come when those of us who are left will love God continuously, without interruption. And this is what God wants, that we may all come to love Him. Deuteronomy 7:9 says, “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations…” But if this is something that we must know, instead of feel, is God in this passage putting out His wares for us to see, and to make a choice? Did anyone ever have a jealous girlfriend who said, ‘It’s either her of me?’ Then again, God says in Exodus 20:5 that He is “a jealous God.” God, in a sense, then, makes the same demand on us as does a jealous girlfriend.
It seems that God in the Old Testament implores us to love Him or else, and in the New Testament we learn in passages like 1 John 4:8 that God is love, and Jesus tells us to just love Him.
With loving God comes faith in Him, more so than our faith in our families. Jesus in Matthew 10:37 says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” But Jesus gave us the second commandment which is to love eachother as we love ourselves, for this, along with loving God, is the pathway to Him. So, we place loving God above loving eachother, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t love eachother.
But these are all words. With loving God and eachother, actions speak louder than words.
-
1
- Show all
For many it is the driving force of life, and our ability to know love and live in ways that honor love define who we are. Finding love is cause for celebration. It's loss is devastating, and causes great grief that brings into sharper focus the fact that we highly value the presence, knowledge, and intimacy of love in our lives.
