Once Jesus asked Peter this question and the disciple answered, "You know that I love You" (John 21:15-17). If we ask ourselves the same question we would probably say "of course" without a second thought because this is what we are taught since the beginning of our Christian journey.
However yesterday during a sermon a preacher asked, "how can you prove it? In what way do you show your love?" I like this question a lot. We all know that we need to love God and love people, but if loving people is more or less understandable, loving God usually goes by default. How can we practically show our love to the Person who doesn't need anything and is greater than everything we know and understand?
Whoever Loves Has Been Born of God
I started studying this question and came across the following verse:
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God" (1 John 4:7)
Someone who can truly love (people and God) is born of God. This means that true love is unavailable to us if we're not born again! If we have never met the Source of love, we cannot radiate this love, especially toward the Source.
So if you think that you love God but do not accept Him as your Lord and Savior, do not have a personal relationship with Him, and do not surrender your life to Him, it's like you're trying to skip a few steps. You should return to the beginning (and you can read more about it in my older post).
Following Commandments
When Jesus' disciples started asking Him about the Father (in chapter 14 of the gospel of John), He showed them many important concepts about relationship with God, and one of them explained how they can love Him.
"Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word" (John 14:23).
In this chapter you can find many variations of the same thought - loving Jesus (as well as God) is shown through following His commandments, obeying His teaching, and keeping His word.
However, the most law-abiding Jews didn't express true love for God when they crucified His Son. Now we know they did not know love since they weren't born again. But this also makes me think that really loving God means more than blindly obeying the ten commandments.
The Great Commandment
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying,
— Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
He said to him,
— What is written in the Law? How do you read it?
And he answered,
— You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself
And he said to him
— You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.
(Luke 10:25-28)
The most popular verse about loving God goes as a scarlet thread through the whole Bible and is an integral part of the Jewish tradition. It sounds nice and from first sight, it's pretty easy to understand: loving God should engage our whole being. But the question remains: how can this love be shown in practice in our everyday life?
To figure out the answer to this question, I looked into the four parts of our being that are mentioned in this passage: our heart, soul, strength, and our mind. How can we love God with each of them?
With All Your Heart
When we say "love with all your heart," we think about emotional affection, admiration, and adoration. At least this is what heart means in my understanding - the center of our emotions. So I think that our love for God should be expressed on the level of emotions as well.
If we love someone (especially "with all our heart"), we want to spend time with them. This truth is as old as time because it's the truth. Our love for God is expressed in our fellowship with Him - in prayer, worship, meditating over His Word, or even in our thoughts and discourse about life. The more we learn about God, the more we know Him, the more we understand His heart, and the more we admire Him. And the more often do we want to say "Lord, I love You so much!"
With All Your Soul
Our soul is our inner being, our character, and our personality as a part of society. This means that our love for God should be reflected by our character and our interactions with other people! If we truly love God, we are changed into His image, we become Christ-like - and not just secretly in our homes or two hours a week in church. Jesus' personality leaves an imprint on our relationships with people and makes us sources of God's light, letters, and living testimonies.
You cannot love God and not become like Him. You cannot love God with all your soul if your soul is stained by sin.
With All Your Strength
Our strength (or our might) is our resources, skills, and talents. Everything that we use to love ourselves and others. To be successful in our jobs, to reach our goals, to impress people, etc. Loving God would mean that all these resources will be channeled in the right direction. Serving Him with our finances, our time, and our talents.
The most obvious place for ministry is the church. In the New Testament, we see many examples of people serving each other with what they had. But our love for God can also be expressed through our love and our ministry to people around us, especially the ones who are not a part of the church. Jesus showed the ultimate example of sacrificial love and we should follow His example.
With All Your Mind
Loving God with your mind is more than just saying, "I love God". It means permeating your thoughts with His words, changing your way of thinking according to His teaching, and taking Him into consideration in all our plans and talks. It means being mindful of your words and thoughts, fighting the devil's attacks by proclaiming the truth, seeking God's guidance in all your ways, and asking for help from Him first. Making your love for God conscious and reasonable!
Do You Really Love God?
The goal of this post is to bring our attention to this question and make us think if we truly love God or just say it. And if we do, how do we show our love? Do we actually love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, strength, and mind? Or do we just show our affection to Him twice a week for two hours, or maybe less?
The Bible says, "love". We all as Christians need to strive for true love because it's the basis of our faith and our salvation.
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