You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.

Matthew 22:37-38, NKJV

Jesus made this statement in response to a lawyer’s question about the greatest commandment. In His response Jesus actually condensed all of the ten commandments into two: love the Lord and love your neighbor. If we obey these two commandments then we obey all ten. The first four commandments speak of our relationship with God, and the last six of our relationship with others.

The question I would like to address is seen in the title of this blog: why do you love God? Jesus said we are to love him with our whole being: heart, soul, and mind. And I feel quite sure that any Christian, in response to the question, “Do you love God?”, would respond with an immediate “Yes”. But if this question was followed by another, “Why do you love Him? “, we might get different responses.

Let’s think of our response in correlation with our relationship with our children. Most Christian parents would probably admit that, for some period of time, they taught their children to love and obey them by using fear as a motivation. We would develop certain rules, both spoken and unspoken, to instill in our children a sense of obedience. We might even use conditional phrases to convey this concept to them. They may come in the form of “If…but” phrases. “If you obey then… But if you disobey…”

We actually see God using this tactic in His relations with Israel in the Old Testament. He made certain unconditional promises to individuals such as Abraham and David, but He also made conditional promises to the nation as a whole. This was to serve as a deterrent for the nation, as they realized that their actions of obedience and disobedience had consequences – serious consequences.

We as parents use this same tactic with the hope that it will serve as a deterrent with our children. We actually teach them to obey us out of a certain level of fear of the consequences if they disobey.

But we don’t want them to continue in this state of fear. We want them to grow in their relationship with us to the point where they obey us out of love. This could actually be thought of as fear in reverse. Parents desire that their children grow to the point that they obey not out of the fear of punishment, but out of the fear that to disobey would hurt the parent.

This is an amazing transition to witness. Children make it as they realize that their actions have consequences for their parents. Parents want the best for their children and invest so much time, energy, and resources into this endeavor. They desire that their efforts will eventually result in their children truly responding to them in love – even in the fear that to do otherwise would hurt the parent(s).

Have you made that transition? First, in your relationship with family relationships. Do you, as a parent, invest in the lives of your children out of your love for them? And do you, as a child, display a sincere love for your parents in striving to show your love by your life of obedience?

And then think about your relationship with God. Do you obey Him out of a sense of fear, or of love? Certainly, we are to maintain a reverential fear of God simply because of who He is, but we should obey Him out of our deep, abiding love for Him and what He has done for us. Have you grown in your relationship with Him to the level of love, or are you still languishing in a groveling fear because you have not yet grown to love Him with all your heart, soul, and mind? He certainly deserves our love, worship, adoration, and obedience.

Until next time:

Blessings!