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What does it mean to love God?

We have been created, commanded, and constituted to love God.

If our Maker is our Husband, then it follows that what is made is the wife (Isa. 54:5). Creation stemmed from a spousal impulse in God. The reason God made, was that God loved, romantically.

Our Christian life should be a testimony to this divine-human romance. If we do works of charity, tackle noble social issues, preach sound doctrine, but without loving God, we are not even up to the standard of God’s creation. The early church in Corinth and Ephesus faced this problem.

“Their immaturity was due not to deficiency in gnosis (of which they had plenty of a kind), but to deficiency in agape.”

–F. F. Bruce

Below are eight points defining what it means to love God. They come from my notes during a message on Galatians 2:20.

To love the Lord Jesus is:

1) To appreciate Him in His Person and work

2) To focus our being on Him

3) To open to Him for His dispensing

4) To enjoy Him

5) To give Him the preeminence in everything

6) To be one with Him

7) To live Him by expressing Him

8) To become Him

26 thoughts on “What does it mean to love God?”

  1. This reminds me of the fact that to worship God, to serve God, and to know God, though very good and very necessary, are not enough. God desires us that we would love Him – loving God is the indispensable requirement. And to love Him is to set our entire being on Him – spirit, soul, and body – to be filled with Him and to be occupied by Him!

    Thanks for the reminder, brother. Lord Jesus, rekindle my love toward You!

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      • Yes! I feel like we need to be recovered to the love of God, not merely “luv God” (in the sentimental sort of way). To love God is really an exercise of our heart. The Lord gave us a new heart to love Him (Ezek 36:26). Even if we don’t feel like we love God, we can stand with the facts: our new heart is a heart that loves God. Then the Lord can operate to remove all the distracting things from our being. “Lord Jesus, I love YOU.”

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        • Hi David. I couldn’t agree more. Our ability to love the Lord owes itself to the fact that Christ has given us a new heart. Our ability to love God is all the more reason to love Him!

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  2. I’m impressed by your observation that God made because He loved. It’s always helpful to go back to the source and to realize that everything that God does is purposeful and is motivated by His intense and unrelenting love. We should respond to this love by loving God with our first love, thus avoiding the error of the Ephesian believers as pointed out by Christ Himself in Revelation 2.

    Also striking is the last point in your list: to love the Lord Jesus is to become Him. Love and oneness always go together. As we go on in the divine-human romance, our oneness with Christ increases, not only in our activity and living but even in our very being.

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    • You should try a fill in the blank with people sometime. Your Maker is your ______. You’ll get all kinds of answers except Husband! Unless of course they know that verse. It’s a simple yet profound point.

      Great point on oneness. This is obviously in the qualified sense of what has traditionally been understood as deification. It is illustrated in the Song of Songs with Solomon and Shulammite. Shulammite is Solomon in female form. So they are a perfect match.

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  6. Amen, i have to agree with Melissa. Thanks for the reminder…very refreshing. Loving the Lord is definitely a progression. The more we love Him, the more we are becoming Him. Lord Jesus we love You!!!

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  11. I know this has been one of the key elements to my growth as a Christian; perhaps the biggest factor by far, yet I’m still not sure how it happens or what to make of it. Perhaps if I’m asked to think about God, respect God, honor God, or do good for Him and in His name I could, perhaps, do so. To actually love, not just respect, but fall in love with an unseen One, I don’t think it is possible to do. Maybe I’m too strong but I feel no man can genuinely love what they cannot see. I began this comment though by saying that loving Him, and, in fact, being loved by Him was key to my Christian life, how then is this impossible situation possible? I don’t know about you Kyle but I have a because love. I love because He first loved me. He drew me, wooed me, and won my heart allowing me to fall in love with One who is unseen.

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    • Exactly. I think this falls under 1) appreciating Christ in His person and work & 4) enjoying Him. For sure God initiated this romance with us. He is the initial pursuer and His pursuing engenders our pursuit of Him. This is a big point and really comes out in the Song of Songs. Faith is not blind, irrational, unwarranted belief. It is a reaction to God’s divine attraction. I agree that loving an unseen Person presents challenges. But He is very romantic and knows how to draw us, so we can just ask Him to be what He is and do what He does best- love.

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  12. I grew up always knowing that we were created to express God, but I never saw it from a romantic point of view. God created us because He loved! Wow! Amen!

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    • Hey Josh, I was blown away too. It’s a game-changing revelation for sure. God’s love for us is not just as a Father but as a Husband. God’s love is not just comforting, reassuring, and in life, it is romantic. Thus we should be romantic Christians. This saves the Christian life from duty, routine, or boredom.

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