the7ones.comHow do we love God? Let us count the ways…
Author C.S. Lewis once said, “On the whole, God’s love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.” Does this statement ring true? After all, it’s a whole lot easier to depend and trust in the fact that God loves us, than it is for Him to depend and trust in us!
Mankind is perfectly comfortable with thinking about God’s love. We all like to find comfort in the fact that God loves us, no matter what. On the other hand, though, we get kind of sweaty around the collar when we think about our love for God. Why? Because man is sinful and often falls short of God’s standards of love.
What does God expect from us in regard to love? In Matthew 22:37-39, we read, “And He said to him, “˜YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, “˜YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’”
What is God’s standard for showing that we love Him? First, He expects us to love Him by keeping His commandments, John 14:15. Second, he expects us to love one another, because this is an expression of our love for the Father, 1 John 4:7-8.
Ultimately, we know that God is love, 1 John 4:16. Let us remember where the bulk of our love is due, and that doing good for others is loving God.
In his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, “Do not waste your time bothering whether you “˜love’ your neighbor. Act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less.”
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