“Our Three Loves” (Part 1)

Monday
Our Love of God

Love for God is Christianity 101. Basic. At the top of our list.

No question at all, our Lord wants us to believe Him – “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6) – and to love Him. Jesus himself summarized all the commands of God for us clearly:

“ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it:  ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and Prophets hang on these two commandments”. (Matthew 22:37-40)

Any questions?

Yes! How do we show this as pastors? How do these three areas of love get modeled?

Love is action, righteous action to meet the needs of the other.

It is not just a feeling. Read 1 Corinthians 13 and you see a lot of action and commitment, and not much emotion. Ask any parent what love feels like and it probably will be described as changing diapers, hugging, meeting needs, feeding, helping in every way possible.

Love acts.

And it is a commitment of the will, no question. We decide to love.

Our Lord taught us that love for God is the greatest thing we can do, and He was implying that such love will get us to do the actions of obeying the commands. We won’t have other gods in front of Him because we love Him. We won’t take His name in vain, or swear in a wrong way, because we love Him.

And He added that we should love our neighbors as we love ourselves – these are the three directions of love: for God, others, and self.

Let’s spend our week there and try to be both personal and practical.

Starting with loving God:

• Worship God. To love Him is to worship Him. It is not a close human relationship where there is give and take and back and forth. He is the king and we are His servants. He is the creator and owner and general contractor of the universe, and we are His creation. We worship.

It’s pretty common that we are required to go to the worship services of our church! But there is also the need for personal worship of God all alone. Whatever you practice then, keep it regular and meaningful and personal. Many find strong help by bowing their knees and worshiping without asking for anything, at least a few times a week. Worship with Scripture as prayer, given back to God. The Psalms are a great prayer book.

Worship by saying “Ahhh” when you see a rainbow or a sunrise or a sunset. Every artist enjoys a response.

• Model worship in your worship services! There was a day when pastors called the first part “the preliminaries,” and some even sat working on their notes until the hymns or songs were done.

Instead we should see ourselves as the primary leaders of worship in the church, at least by our model, by participating in the praying and singing of the songs and participating in the scripture reading. One way to love God is by helping His people love Him in worship, and setting an example in the services.

• Say it! It is healthy for the gathered church to hear us simply say in the pastoral prayer, “I love you,” to God. Some have never heard anyone say that to God (some to any human!) their whole lives!

And God, as with the people He invented, likes for us to say it to Him.

• Talk about it! Not every week of course, but when appropriate simply say how much you love God, and why you want to do life His way. We should not assume our people ever think much about that.

• Here’s a broad stroke:  obey Him! Jesus said rather clearly, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Love for God shows in the way we respond to His clear directives in the Scriptures.

At times we don’t understand them, but mostly they are pretty clear. One famous quote about that goes, “It’s not the things I don’t understand in the Bible that bother me, but the ones I do understand.”

• Model His love, of course. By our sincere worship and daily obedience we do show our love for God. That is part of being the best example to the people of God’s family He has called us to pastor.

For some we are the clearest example they see. Thus we show grace to those who differ with us, deference to all, compassion to those in need, and active concern for the lost.

• Sing about this love with appropriate words. As the primary worship leader in the church, the pastor might want to be sure words sung to music are appropriate as words stated right in front of God. I’m not sure I would stand in front of God and tell Him I would like to hold Him, or even that I would try to shout “Hallelujah” louder than the girls, as I did as a child. Nothing wrong with fun songs to help kids get involved, but this is about meaningful worship love.

• Honor our God’s beloved Son, whom He features and places at the center of the universe’s attention.

I love it when people ask me to show pictures of our grandchildren, simply because I love them so much. I talk about them, maybe too much.

It is not exactly the same, of course, but every father or mother cares how people treat his or her begotten.

• Tell others about Him. The truth. The good news.

When we love someone, we want to bring that person up to the center of our conversation. And talking about God is one of the actions of love for Him.

• Point to God’s great works often – creation and salvation. They are so often neglected and referred to in a cavalier way. And for sure they are the great works of His hands.

Consider how appropriate it is to compliment a person on his accomplishments, and to show interest in what is important to him. Would this not also show love to God?

Some of us believe that we should point to the cross of Christ in every sermon for sure. It is the centerpiece of history, and of God’s love.

If these actions are common in your life, keep going. They can’t be just perfunctory, but it would be hard to do most of these things without putting your heart into it.

Where we can improve actions of love to God, may it be so!