What is the Best Way You Can Love God?
"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love another."
It's even greater than the Golden Rule "Do unto others as you would have them do to you. " We don't decide how to love, "How would l like to be treated?" Christ's demonstration of love is the new standard. It completely shifts the focus from us to Him.
That's how it should be.
You may have heard someone say something like, "I love God, just not his children." That's not possible. How would you feel if someone said to you, "I really like you but I can't stand to be around your kids."
See ya! If you don't love who I love, got no time for you.
Or imagine a mother of three kids in a relationship with a prospective husband. The maybe-to-be husband says to her, "I love you and want to spend my life with you, but I can't stand being around your kids." If he really loved her, he would also love her children. She better run!
It's the same way with God.
We can often confuse love of God with things like going to church, praying, and reading our Bible--now don't mistake me, those things are important, but they are not genuine reflections of our love for God. That's vertical love--you to God. But God doesn't care how much church-going and Bible reading you do. If you're not loving people as Christ has loved you, you're fooling yourself. It's crazy to think but God measures our love for Him by our love for one another. That's horizontal love--you to others.
Do you really want a clear picture of how much you love God? Then the best question you can ask God is, "How well am I loving others?" Ask the Holy Spirit to jog your memory of all your people interactions in the last week. How loving were you when someone cut in line in front of you? How did you respond when you found out a friend talked behind your back? Those are reactive actions. Let's talk proactive. How have you expressed love to your neighbor across the street? When was the last time you wrote a thank you card, just because, or gave some of your hard-earned money to a stranger that looked like they needed it more than you?
The horizontal love-you to others, is just as important as vertical love-you to God.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Sometimes we want to increase our love and devotion to God so we make promises like, "I'm going to church more regularly." Or, "I'm going to read my Bible more often." And those things are important, but don't forget that just as important is to make plans to love others too. They go hand-in-hand, they are equally important. Either one done without the other will lead to pride and self-righteousness.
And that runs the risk of turning you into a Pharisee.
Remember the Pharisees in the Bible? They were the religious leaders that gave Jesus the most trouble. They had vertical-love down to a science. They were experts at obedience but their hearts were far from God. Their acts of obedience did not reflect a love for God but really a love of themselves and their ability to be better at keeping commandments than most others. You can be obedient to the lists of do's and dont's in the New Testament and still have a legal, works-based, Old Testament heart. And besides, you don't have to be a Bible scholar to begin expressing your love of God in a beautiful and profound way. Just think of all the ways Jesus has loved you and get busy loving others just like Jesus does!
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