Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
John 14:21 – Scripture of the Day (February 18, 2014)
As I wrote in my last article, my apologies for this being late…in this case by one day. Life gets in the way at times. But now we’re back on track.
All who profess to follow Christ will unhesitatingly state that they love God. That’s a given, and from a certain perspective it’s a good thing. It speaks of their sincerity and of a heart-felt gratitude they have towards their Creator.
Yet, so many of us profess to love God…while unrepentantly doing things that grieve him, anger him, and displease him. Consider this…
- We say we love God but we hardly ever open our Bibles. Do you truly love someone if you’re not interested in learning what they have to say?
- We say we love God but we hardly ever pray. Do you truly love someone if you’re not interested in talking to them?
- We say we love God but we choose to worship him according to what we think will please him rather than according to his will revealed to us in his Word. Do you truly love someone if they ask you to give them a certain gift and instead you give them what you think they will like?
- We say we love God but we then say he has saved us in a way which is foreign to how he has told us he saves us in his Word. Do you truly love someone if you basically call them a liar, especially over something as important as your salvation?
- We say we love God but we do not care enough about the souls for whom he sent his Son to die to share with them the gospel as he told us to do. Do you truly love someone if you don’t care enough to do everything you can to save the person for whom they gave such a high sacrifice?
If we truly love God and his Son Jesus, we will obey their commandments. And when we sin and fail them, we will repent and try again because we love them. Otherwise, all we are doing is lying to them, to others, and to ourselves.
