“Of course I love God! What do you think I am—some kind of heartless mussel?”
But the important question is not whether or not a person loves God. It’s not the ‘if,’ but the ‘why’ as in “Why do you love God?
“I love God because He makes me happy.”
That sounds like an okay answer. Sort of like “I like bacon because it tastes good.” Most people can live with that reasoning. However, suppose bacon stopped tasting good. Would you still like it?
Suppose God stopped making you happy. Would you still love Him? The truth is God doesn’t always act in ways which elicit love from every person. One of the saddest events in a parent’s life is if he loses a child. He prays, prays and prays, but the child still passes away. Then he might glare skyward, raise his fists and scream, “You didn’t answer any of my requests to save my child. I literally begged but got no answer. Why would I love you?”
Sadly, that becomes a pattern of life for so many people. As long as they get what they want from God, they hang around a church with some sort of regularity. But as soon as He doesn’t answer a prayer in the manner which they believe He should, they are done with Him.
Which is to say, they never loved Him in the first place. At best, their love for Him can only be described as conditional.
“I love God simply because He IS God.” With those few words, we’ve boiled it down to the essence of why we should love Him. Because He IS.
It’s not a love based on any sort of outward morality. We’re not declaring, “I haven’t killed anyone, always paid my taxes, and know how to spell Bible. Therefore, I’m sure I love God.”
It’s not a love based solely on Biblical knowledge: “Guess what! I’ve read the entire Bible from Genesis to Reve-something or other. And now I love God.”
It’s not a love based on ‘religious’ activity: “When I go to the woods, I commune with God because He reminds me of a mighty oak. Oh, and I show up for a worship service every time there’s a U.S. Census.”
Finally, it’s not a love based on fear of Judgment Day: “A preacher told me one time if I loved God I wouldn’t go to Hell. Figured I probably ought to love Him.”
Want to know how you can tell if a person truly loves God without any conditions? Simply watch his eyes. Hebrews 12:2 provides an excellent example. The author of Hebrews exhorts us to run the race set before us with endurance by setting our eyes upon Jesus. Then he adds this statement about Jesus: “…who for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”
Jesus endured a horrifying race. But He looked ahead at the joy in front of Him and pushed to the end of His life on earth, death on a cross. In that joy, we witness love for the Father. Jesus says as much in John 14:31: “…but so the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded me.”
The commands of the Father are about living and loving selflessly and immensely in all our relationships. Therefore, whenever someone declares, “You bet I love God,” the proof is found first in his desire to express his love for the Father by following His commands. That diligence establishes his loving relationship with the Father.
Secondly, following those commands pours into all his other relationships. After foremost loving God, his love becomes pronounced in his relationships with his spouse, children, neighbors, co-workers and even his enemies. He sees a stranger, and he moves into that person’s life with love.
Love is always an action. Godly love is always an action first demonstrated towards our Father, and then it spreads out to everyone who crosses our path.
Let our lives show passionate evidence of our love for God. Let it be unconditional. Because we know He simply IS!