Today is February 15, 2014. Yesterday was February 14, Valentine’s Day. A day set aside for us to show that “special person” in our lives just how much we love them. For me, I took my wife out to eat and she went to get a mani/pedi. A little pampering. As I sit here thinking about this day, I wonder how strong my relationship with my wife would be if I saved all of the “I Love You” type of stuff for this one day of celebration. I suspect, as you probably do, too, that it would be a simply HORRIBLE relationship and it would probably not last until the next Valentine’s Day. Perhaps this first paragraph is a bit misleading, but I don’t want to discuss my relationship with my wife in this article. REALLY, I wonder how often we tell Jesus we love him, both in words and actions. I wonder if He, or those around us can tell we love him by the same metrics. Let’s explore that for a bit, shall we?
There are a number of biblical truths that I could use as a basis for this article, but I want to focus on just one of these. Let’s look at an answer Jesus gave to a man who asked this question: “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus answered as follows (Mark 12:29-30):
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 with this answer. What Jesus was telling this man was that the foremost commandment in all of the Bible is to love God with everything we have. In other words, our love for God should be so strong in us that it becomes more important to us than ANYTHING ELSE. More important than our family, country and yes, even more important than our very own lives. To some of you, this may seem a bit extreme, but that was the command Jesus quoted and there is no room to misunderstand this response.
Now, let’s think about what that kind of love would do to us. In order to do that, let’s take a step back from the command and look at what we do for ourselves. After all, we certainly have enough love for our own selves that we do what we can to take care of ourselves, right? If we are hungry, we will go to great lengths to obtain the food we need. If it is raining, we seek the protection of a shelter. If we are cold, we look for a way to stay warm. In other words, for our own body, we will do anything necessary to provide these basic necessities. Even if you are not a thief, you would likely steal to meet these personal needs if it came down to it. As long as you have life in your body, you will continue to struggle to meet these needs. This is what God expects of us. Our love for him should be so strong, that we will do everything we can, even if it is uncomfortable for us, to express that love. Not simply by “saying” we love him, but by the ACTIONS we take.
What, then, are the actions we should be taking? Well, the bible gives us that answer as well. In John 1415, Jesus tells his disciples:
If you love me, keep my commands
Later in that same conversation, Jesus said this (verse 21):
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.
Jesus is pretty clear about what our love for God should entail. Furthermore, he repeated the same thing once more in the same conversation (read the rest of John 14 to see it). What this means to me, is that I cannot simply SAY I love God if I am unwilling to follow through and be obedient to His word. In fact, in verse 24, Jesus told his disciples that people who do not love him will not follow his commands. SO, in order for me to REALLY love God, I have to be obedient to his word? That is the clear directive that Jesus gave.
Now, let me get back to my wife for a moment. If it is true that I love her, it is important that I spend time showing her that I really do love her. I mean, she likes to hear it every day, but there is much more to it than simply SAYING I love her. I have to show her by my actions. It is the same way with God. If I only approach God once per week for my appearance at church, it will be very difficult for me to convince Him that I really love Him. I mean, even though one of his commands is to gather with other believers on a regular basis, that isn’t the ONLY command he gave. There are desires and temptations in my life EVERY DAY that are acts of disobedience to God. It is my love for Him that helps me to overcome those temptations. Well, MOST of them. I am still imperfect even in this area. But there is still more that we can learn from Jesus.
You see, one thing we see Jesus do often is pray. I mean, he is GOD himself and, yet, his humanity required that he spend time with the Father. Here are a few references for you to look up if you want to read them: Mark 1:35, Matthew 11:25-26, Luke 6:12, Luke 22:41-44, Luke 23:34, John 11:41-42. There are MANY others, but these few should show you that Jesus spent time with God. Speaking to him AND allowing God to speak back. This is how we, too, can spend time with God. It is important to realize, though, that prayer should not be us simply leaving a “laundry list” of things for God to do for us. Rather, it is a mixture of us offering up praise, recognizing our weaknesses and failures AND admitting that we need help in overcoming these as well as forgiveness for our sin and, yes, it is asking God to involve himself in the situations of our lives and those of our friends. Among ALL of these, we should be listening for God to speak to us as well. For me, this is typically in the form of a scripture being brought to my mind. Of course, in order for that to happen, I must be prepared by reading from His word on a regular basis. Prayer is a two way conversation where we talk to God and HE talks to us. That’s how a relationship works.
So far, we have discussed showing our love for God by our obedience and by spending time speaking and listening for Him to speak. Additionally, spending time reading His word will allow us to gain a better insight into exactly who He is and what He wants us to be. There is one other important aspect of showing love for God that Jesus also brought up. It is found in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25:31-46. Verse 40 reads:
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
This parable tells us that we should be about doing the work that Jesus started. We need to be caring for those around us. We need to be LOVING PEOPLE. You see, when Jesus was asked what the most important commandment in the bible was, he gave not only the first, to love God, but he also gave the second. Here is that response from Mark 12:31:
The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Our love for God is shown not only by how we interact with God, but in how we interact with people as well. God knows our hearts. Our love for him should drive us to not only be obedient to his commands, but to point others to him as well. He loves ALL people. He wants a relationship with every person ever born, no matter what their choices or appearance may be. That is his desire and our love for him should drive us to do our part to see others come to him because it is HIS desire. If my wife sees something that she wants, I will strive to obtain that thing, just because it will make her happy. Shouldn’t our love for God be one that, even more than that, will drive us to do what will bring joy to him?
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