“When Christ reveals Himself, our hearts are so taken with His beauty and love that we can never be content with anything less than Him.” John Owen
“If we never truly see God, we will never truly love God. Worship begins with wonder.” A.W. Tozer
“Once the soul has tasted the glory of God, it can never settle for lesser loves.” A.W. Tozer
Over my 46 years of following Jesus, I have observed in my own life and in countless lives of others times of struggle to follow and obey Jesus. It was easy to try to give encouraging reminders that “God loves you,” but that truth alone rarely helped many people. Most of them knew God loved them. Some even used the fact that God loved them to continue in sin, like adultery, and abandon their families (causing incredible pain and destruction), using the justification, “God loves me and wants me to be happy, so He is okay with me abandoning my family.”
The biggest challenge people who identify as Christians face is not about knowing God loves them, but in light of His great love, loving Him back! This is such a big issue that Paul wrote something shocking at the end of his first letter to the Corinthians, who were dealing with many sin issues in their church.
- 1 Corinthians 16:21-23 The greeting is in my own hand—Paul. (22) If anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed (banned, cut off, excommunicated). Maranatha. (23) The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
This is not a casual statement. Paul is declaring that failing to love Christ is not a minor oversight—it carries eternal consequences. “Maranatha” means The Lord is coming! His return will reveal whether we truly love Him or have merely claimed His name without devotion. Let’s explore this challenge of loving God.
Loving God Is Not Optional, but THE WONDERFUL COMMANDMENT THAT LEADS TO LIFE.
In a culture where grace is often emphasized at the expense of obedience, Paul’s words confront us with an uncomfortable truth: A lack of love for God among those who know He loves them is not neutral, it brings consequences. Many today assume that acknowledging God’s love is enough, yet Scripture makes it clear: God reveals and commands us to love Him in return. Consider some of the Biblical revelations of this.
- Psalms 31:23-24 O love the LORD, all you His godly ones! The LORD preserves the faithful And fully recompenses the proud doer. (24) Be strong and let your heart take courage.
- Psalms 97:10-11 Hate evil, you who love the LORD…
- Mar 12:28-31 … “What commandment is the foremost of all?” (29) Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; (30) AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ (31) “The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these/upon these two commandments the whole Law and Prophets rests” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7, 10:12, 30:6, Matthew 26:32-40, Luke 10:25-27).
Jesus did not say, “You shall acknowledge that God loves you.” He commanded us to love Him back—with everything we are.
- 1 John 4:11-19 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins…(19) We love Him because He first loved us.
- Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
- 1Corinthains 2:9 but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
Loving God Leads to His True/Abundant Life.
Some resist the idea of loving God with everything; it sounds authoritative, and they fear it will cost them too much. But God’s command to love Him is not a restriction; it is the key to life itself.
The world tells us to love ourselves first, but SELF-LOVE, WHEN ELEVATED ABOVE LOVE FOR GOD, IS THE ROOT OF ALL DESTRUCTION. It leads to selfishness, pride, broken relationships, hurting others, and ultimately separation from God. This is why Jesus called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23).
When we love God above all else:
- Selfishness is defeated. Instead of living for personal gain, we live for His glory.
- Relationships are healed. Loving God teaches us to love others selflessly.
- Purpose and Life are restored. Instead of chasing empty pleasures that lead to death, we walk in His will, which leads to life.
LOVING GOD DOES NOT HINDER LIFE, IT UNLOCKS THE BEST LIFE POSSIBLE. It sets us free from the trap of self-centered living and brings us into a life of joy, peace, and eternal purpose.
How do we overcome competing love (loving things, self, etc., more than God)?
The battle for the heart is not won simply by recognizing that loving self or loving the world is empty. Many have tried to abandon worldly pleasures only to find themselves drawn back into them or, worse, trapped in a cold, legalistic faith.
There are two ways one might try to remove self-love and love for the world from our heart:
- Expose the emptiness of loving self or loving the world, hoping the heart will turn away from it as unworthy.
- Focus on and encounter something far greater—God Himself—so that the heart does not merely abandon an old affection but replaces it with a new and greater one.
The first method is ineffective. The human heart was created to love. If it is emptied of one affection, it will search for another. Simply warning people of sin’s dangers does not change them. Telling someone, “Don’t love the world,” without giving them something more significant to love, leaves them vulnerable to falling back into it.
The second method is the only true path to transformation. The love of self and the world can only be overcome by the greater love of God. When we truly see Him as He is—GLORIOUS, HOLY, BEAUTIFUL, and INFINITELY WORTHY—the grip of self-love and worldly affections weakens and dies.
I remember reading a quote from Scottish Theologian Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) that expressed this truth well.
“The love of the world cannot be expunged by a mere demonstration of the world’s worthlessness. But may it not be supplanted by the love of that which is more worthy than itself?”- Chalmers
This is why loving God is not just about duty, it is about being amazed by Him. The more we see Him, the more we love Him. The more we love Him, the less the world appeals to us.
What Does It Mean to Love God?
Loving God is more than emotional admiration or verbal confession. It is total devotion expressed in:
- Amazement – Seeing Him as the most glorious, desirable, and worthy reality in existence.
- Obedience – “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)
- Faithfulness – Not serving two masters (Matthew 6:24).
- Sacrifice – Laying down our lives for Him (Romans 12:1).
That Amazement with God, who is perfect and loving, is the beginning of Obedience, Faithfulness, and Sacrifice. Rejoicing highlights the Amazing God afresh, which enables us to love Him in the way He is worthy of. May we return to being amazed by God and His love, which is the foundation for loving Him! Paul clearly showed us from his own life that being amazed with God causes us to give Him first place in our lives with total devotion. In the short letter to the Philippians, which was written from jail, Paul tells them to “Rejoice, take joy in, and be glad in the Lord” 14 times. It is a clear reminder that no matter what circumstance we may find ourselves in, we take clear steps to be freshly amazed with God, which enables us to Obey, be Faithful, and Sacrifice.
- Philippians 3:1-9 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you… (7) But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (8) More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, (9) and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ.