What Does God Require? part 4

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good. - Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Today we will look at the next instruction from this verse, that we are to love God. There is a lot that can be said about this simple command, so I will try to highlight some other Biblical passages that provide us a robust picture of what it means to love God. As you're probably aware, the original languages of the Bible have more than one word for "love." In English, we say that we love pizza or we love a particular TV show or we love our country or we love our children. Obviously, those are different types of love. Let's look at some other scriptures that help us understand what loving God looks like.

1. Love God Not Just For What He Does, But For Who He Is.

Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! - Psalm 150:2

God does incredible things. Creation, common grace, healing, provision, comfort, and...oh yeah, SALVATION!! It is good for us to love God and praise Him for His incredible works, but the scripture doesn't let us stop there; we are to also praise God for who He is. Think about the attributes of God: eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, compassionate, merciful, wrathful, patient, just, righteous, loving, etc. Those are but some of the attributes of God that we are to love. If we only love God for what He can do for us, that type of love is ultimately selfish and will leave us frustrated when God doesn't always do what we want. But if we love God for who He is (and remember that He is is unchanging), we will never be left disappointed.

2. Love God Not Just With Your Emotions, But With All Of Who You Are.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. - Mark 12:30

In our culture, "love" is almost exclusively defined as an emotional experience. We say that we've "fallen out of love" with someone, meaning that the emotional high of the initial love experience isn't there anymore. The Biblical definition of love includes the emotions to be sure, but it is much bigger and deeper than that. We are to love God by learning about Him intellectually. (I have written before about the fact that if you love something, you will learn about it). We are to love God by persevering through difficulties and dry seasons. We are to love God by being disciplined to seek Him through scripture and prayer. Again, the emotions are very important but they are not the definition of what it means to love God.

3. Love God By Obeying Him

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. - 1 John 5:3

Plain and simple, we demonstrate our hearts through our actions. It would be no good for me to tell my wife and kids that I love them with my mouth but never go to work and provide for their needs or never defend them against harm or never show them physical affection. If we claim to love God, we will learn what pleases and displeases Him and seek to bring Him joy. *VERY IMPORTANT* This obedience must first spring from an understanding of the Gospel. You will not impress God and earn your place in His family with your amazing works. In fact, the Bible says that even our best deeds are like filthy rags in God's eyes. But once you understand that the cross and resurrection mean that you are already accepted by God because of what Jesus did, it frees you from the burdensome toil of trying to measure up. Once we have understood the gospel, we are now free to keep the commandments of God out of loving response to the love that He has already shown.

4. Love God By Resting In His Love

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. - John 15:9

I don't know about you, but the above verse gives me a avery strong sense of peace and rest. Here, Jesus is assuring us of His love, letting us know that He loves us the same way that God the Father has loved Him. Our proper response should be to relax, to rest, to trust in that love. Our love toward God should not be anxious or fearful; God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Rest. Relax. Enjoy. Abide. Live in His love. Experience His love day by day.

I'm quite certain that there is much more that could be said about what it means to love God, but the above points should give each of us something to think about, to wrestle with, to pray about. There is nobody who loves God perfectly, so we all have some way that we can grow in this area. I'll simply close this blog out by echoing the prayer of Paul found in Ephesians 3:

[I pray] that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.