THE CHRISTIAN’S
LOVE FOR GOD
by DSB
For the Christian, love is first and foremost directed toward God. In a perfect world this is the natural thing to do. In our imperfect world it has to be the required thing to do for most of us to give it any serious consideration at all.
Therefore, God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. What this means is that we are to love God more than any one or any thing else - which specifically and inevitably means loving Him more than ourselves. He is to be the supreme love in our life. (Note: Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Mark 12:29-31)
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, supreme refers to that which is greatest in power, authority, or rank; that which is paramount or dominant; that which is greatest in importance, degree, significance, character, or achievement; that which is ultimate; final. Therefore, there can be only one supreme love in our life at a time.
And herein lies the challenge, because from birth our supreme love is ourselves. All other loves are subordinate to self-love. All other interests are subject to self-interest. All other good is evaluated in light of self-good. From birth we are by nature, self-centered. We are naturally committed to promoting and protecting our own well-being first and foremost. We are self-focused to the extent of knowingly and deliberately seeking our own good at the expense of others. Therefore, the hardest part of fulfilling God’s command to love Him supremely is making love of self subordinate to love of God.
To make all other loves, including self-love, subordinate to our love for God requires self-denial. To make our interests subject to God’s interests requires self-denial. To evaluate self-good in light of God’s good requires self-denial. In essence, we must die to self-importance to make God all-important. We must neglect self-good to unreservedly and unconditionally seek God’s good. We must deny self to love God supremely.
In relation to love, the denial of self is first of all a deliberate decision to place the importance of another above the importance of self. Then, this decision is followed by the intentional action of turning away from self-promotion and self-preservation in order to faithfully promote and protect the good of the other.
Many think they can love God without denying self in this way. But they can't. We must deny self if we are to free ourselves from enough self-interest to be able to love God more than ourselves. We must subordinate self-interest to God’s interests if we are to consistently seek His good above our own. We must change our allegiance from self to God if we are to whole-heartedly commit ourselves to thoughtfully, diligently, and faithfully doing His will. Without the denial of self we will not, and in fact cannot love God supremely.
Yet denying self (turning away from self-promotion and self-preservation) to love God supremely puts us in a supremely vulnerable position. When we remove self as our primary concern we become completely vulnerable to the costs of doing God’s will. Because the cost of doing God’s will often poses a powerful threat to our sense of security and general well-being, very few are willing to take that risk. This is why so many of us try to love God without turning away from self-promotion and self-protection. We want to love God. But we want to love Him in an environment which guarantees the promotion and protection of self just in case things don't work out as expected. Of course, the only environment of that kind which we feel is dependable is a self-controlled environment. So we try to love God out of our supreme love of self. It can't be done.
So what is the solution? If we don't love God supremely, we will be judged for our disobedience. If we do love God supremely, we're faced with having to jeopardize our own well-being to do His will. This seems like a no-win situation. Is there a reasonable, workable, dependable solution? Yes!
The solution is to have someone greater than ourselves look out for our well-being while we focus on promoting and protecting God’s interests. But who would this someone greater be? The most reasonable choice, because of His power and ability, is God. And in fact, God not only offers to solve our vulnerability problem by becoming our provider and protector, He wants us to trust Him.
But this sets up a seeming paradox. On the one hand, God commands us to love Him more than ourselves so that we become vulnerable to the costs of doing His will. Yet on the other hand, God wants us to place our well-being in His hands so He can promote and protect our well-being while we devote ourselves to doing His will. Doesn’t it seem strange that the one who wants to protect us is the one who causes our problems by commanding us to do things that jeopardize our well-being?
In fact, to trust the one who causes our dilemma to solve our dilemma is unnatural. It’s uncommon. And according to most people, churched and unchurched, it’s foolish. Yet this is exactly what we ought to do. This is the wisest thing to do. It is the only way to have the security, provision, and protection necessary to freely and cheerfully love God supremely. But to do this we must place complete trust in God’s goodness (His integrity, honesty, morality, decency, sincerity, sense of justice, strength, knowledge, wisdom, and rationality).
However, very few believe God to be completely trustworthy. Somewhat trustworthy or mostly trustworthy - yes! Completely trustworthy - no! Therefore, it is far more common to doubt and love God a little than to trust completely and love God supremely.
Many think that at least a few of God’s commands are irrational or excessive. They may not admit this, but their choices and behavior confirm it. When you observe them in action, some of their repetitive behaviors prove they believe it is unsafe to do everything God says. Others are convinced God is occasionally disinterested or indifferent to their needs. They especially feel this way in times of trouble. This feeds their unwillingness to take the risks necessary to love Him supremely. Some conclude God won’t do what is necessary because He doesn’t do what they want Him to do. So they keep self-centeredness alive for those times when they believe they must make up for God’s failures by acting on their own behalf.
Yet God is worthy of our trust. He is flawlessly good. He is the quintessence of love. He is the faithful, gentle, gracious, compassionate Father, who in all ways and at all times promotes and protects our good. When we trust in His goodness enough to place our well-being in His hands we quickly realize we couldn’t be safer, for He lovingly turns our vulnerability into unchallengeable, unshakable security - a security which inspires us to willingly and eagerly die to self-interest so it cannot obstruct our devotion to doing His will.
Therefore, don't miss this truth. Complete trust in God’s goodness is essential to loving Him supremely. We can trust God enough to make it seem as if we love Him a lot. But without complete trust (at least as much as we know to trust Him today) we will never love Him more than (or even as much as) ourselves. Any amount of known distrust of God compels us to love self the most and focus on promoting and protecting our well-being as if it is our most important concern. To love God supremely, to love Him more than ourselves, we must trust Him completely.
We can know we are trusting God completely when we willingly and eagerly place our life and the lives of those dearest to us (parents, siblings, spouse, children) in His hands and depend on Him to do what is best for us all in every situation. We can know we have placed our life and the lives of those dearest to us in His hands when we cheerfully and intentionally live according to His Word, in spite of the obvious risks and possible costs to our own well-being. This is the level of trust required to love God supremely.
The outward manifestation of loving God supremely is predominantly found in how we treat people - those affected in some way by our choices and behavior. It becomes evident we love God supremely when we treat the people around us with the same kindness, consideration, and respect as we want to receive from them. If we do not promote and protect the good of those we can see, or can help, or in some way affect by what we do, it is proves we do not love God supremely.
If you question the truth of what has just been stated, think about this. God loves everyone. And every one of God’s commands are intended to keep us on the path of love. They set boundaries which protect the good of everyone. Can we, then, intentionally disobey or carelessly disregard any of God’s commands without knowingly, willingly, and unjustly hurting someone He loves? Can we deliberately and repeatedly hurt someone He loves and love Him at the same time? The answer should be obvious.
We cannot love God and intentionally or even carelessly continue to hurt anyone He loves. We may act foolishly and selfishly on occasion. But when God is our supreme love, we quickly confess our sin and make things right with whomever we’ve wronged when we see the wrong we have done. In addition, when God is our supreme love we look for thought patterns and behavior patterns in our own life which promote the practice of sin (hurt others unnecessarily) so we can break those patterns and establish righteous ones in their place. Do not let anyone deceive you in this matter. No one who knowingly and deliberately practices sin loves God. (Note: John 14:15, 21, 23; I John 2:3-6; 4:7-8, 19-21; 5:3)
Though God commands us to love Him, He does not make us love Him. We are free to love Him, like Him, distrust Him, despise Him, or even hate Him. The decision is totally ours. We are free to do as we please - though this doesn’t mean we are free to do as we please without consequences appropriate to our choices.
Nevertheless, we are free to choose, and such freedom is essential to genuine love. Only when we are free not to love can God feel justifiably confident that our choice to love Him means we want to love Him. Only when we are free not to love can He know we love Him because He is precious and trustworthy in our eyes. And only when we are free to love ourselves supremely can the act of self-denial validate His supremacy in our lives.
Though God’s command to love Him only addresses our love for Him, He is not looking for one-sided love. He wants a relationship with us. He wants a reciprocal relationship where each side seeks the good of the other. He wants each side to feel cherished by the other. He wants each side to trust the other. He wants each side to be confidently secure in the love of the other.
Take serious note of this. The creator of the universe, the supreme God who is over all that has been, is, and will be, wants an intimate, never-ending, mutually satisfying relationship with us. He wants this so much that He has already sacrificed the life of His son to make it possible. He wants this so much that He patiently waits for us to come to our senses, repent of our sin, and be reconciled to Him - even though such waiting often means the continued practice of sin on our part. He wants this so much that He has given His Spirit the task of convicting us of sin, righteousness, and the coming judgment so we will be even more inclined to accept His invitation to a reconciled relationship of mutual love and trust. The point is, choosing to love God supremely brings us into an unequalled, intimate, meaningful, serious, mutual, and eternal relationship of love and trust with Him.
When we love God supremely our lives are enriched in many ways. Yet when we love God supremely, personal enrichment is never our motive or goal. If it is, we are yet self-focused and committed to self-love. When our focus is on God, His enrichment is our supreme interest. Unquestionably, love for God results in many blessings from His hands. While that is the reward of love, it is never the goal of the one who loves.
Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is the most complete expression of trust in God. It is the only reasonable response of your awe and adoration for God. It is only possible through the denial of self and complete trust in His goodness. And only when God is your supreme love are you free enough of self-love to manifest your unremitting passion to please this One whom you love so much.