One
of the basic truths of the universe is that God is loving. In fact, the Bible
even goes so far as to say, “God is love” (1 John 4:16).
God
demonstrates His love for us in many ways. But His supreme act of love was
giving His Son, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, to deal with human sin (Rom. 5:8).
Imitating God’s love
So
God is love. But it is not as if we are supposed to just stand at a distance admiring
that. In Eph. 5:1 the apostle Paul writes, “Be imitators of God.” What Paul
means is that we are to imitate His moral qualities including His love.
The most important commandment
The
importance of love is also shown by what Jesus says in Mark 12:28-34. In this
passage we read about an occasion when He was asked what the most important
commandment in the law of Moses was.
Quoting
Deut. 6:5, He replied:
“You must Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Given
how God is love and how He wants us to imitate His moral qualities, it isn’t a
surprise that Jesus would give this as the greatest commandment.
Today,
Christians are not under obligation to follow the law of Moses. Instead, we are
under the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2).
However,
the law of Christ is a fulfillment of the law of Moses. It is a kind of
outgrowth from that law and has a lot in common with it.
Even
though the command that Jesus quoted is part of the law of Moses, there is no
doubt that the law of Christ overlaps with the law of Moses as far as this
command is concerned. As people who are under the law of Christ, then, we must
set ourselves the goal of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and
strength.
Using our wills
It
is important to understand that the command to love God is not a command to try
to manufacture some sort of emotional feeling within ourselves. We should never
try to create emotions. Instead, loving God is first and foremost about using
our wills. We choose to do what pleases Him to the best of our ability.
Of
course, we will never succeed in loving Him with all our heart this side of
death. But the command to love Him in this way is similar to the one in Matt. 5:48,
“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” God commands us to be
perfect, not because we will manage to do that before we die, but because it is
a goal we must strive towards.
Radical living
There
are many passages in the Bible which make it clear that the normal Christian
life is a radical thing (e.g., Matt. 16:24-25; 18:8-9; John 12:25). It is an
extreme thing, not in an uncontrolled or unreasonable way, but in how we are to
love God. We are to give our lives for His service. We are to be people who
have one supreme, overarching goal, which is to do His will.
To
love God in this way doesn’t mean that life should become a misery. It is not
as if we let God rule over our lives, and then He only asks us to do things we
don’t want to do. The will of God for us is bound to be a mixture of things we
want and don’t want to do. But the key thing is to submit to Him and let Him
rule over all our actions.
Knowing the will of God
Of
course, even after we have set ourselves to do the will of God, it is still
often difficult to know exactly what His will is. But if we seek Him seriously
about this, we will make good progress towards knowing His will for our lives.
In
practical terms, the most important way for us to learn what He wants us to do
is by becoming serious students of the Bible. Every Christian should make it a
practice to regularly study and meditate on Scripture.
Also,
as we seek God in prayer, we will become more able to hear the voice of His
Spirit directing our lives.
See
also my articles:
The Importance of Taking Steps to Avoid Temptation
