Loving God
Twenty-One
May 18, 2025
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
— Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV)
How do we love God? What I mean to ask is, in what ways is our love for our Lord expressed?
It’s a deep-reaching question. How do we practically, realistically, daily love God? Sit across the dinner table from Peter and we may hear him say that we love the God we don’t see by living as though he were visibly right next to us. If we caught a bus into the city and found ourselves sitting next to John, he may answer the same question saying, yes, you don’t see him but you love him by loving those you do see — you love God by loving fellow believers.
How might Jesus respond to this question? Remember he is the only one who has fulfilled the entire law and prophets by perfectly loving God with his whole being and by loving others more than himself, even to the very end. He is the one who gave us a new commandment: love one another. “This is the way of joy”, he may tell us. And I can hear Paul chiming in with, “Yes, the entire law is fulfilled by loving others as you love yourself.”
One way, one very important way, that our faith is expressed, is in our love for one another. When we love each other deeply, we are in fact, loving God visibly. I think we can see that the whole of Scripture points us to this truth. Loving God means loving others, and if we love God by loving others, the question that naturally follows is, “how do we love others?” Is our love for one another shown by what we say, or by good stewardship of what we possess? Or is it shown by what we give away? Possibly, but not necessarily. If we speak, and possess, and give, “but do not have love”, as Paul says, we are noisy nothings with nothing in hand. So then, how do we love others?
Love is not something we fabricate or muster up by sheer human strength. Love is a response. It is received, poured out, and overflowing. Love is from God because God is love. If you’ve been born again, if you know the God of love who gave us his Son Jesus, then love is a part of your wardrobe ready to be donned. A bulleted list of how to love another person might seem helpful, and indeed, Scripture graciously gives us parameters through which our faith can express itself as we are empowered by His Spirit – but what we really need is an encounter with Love himself.
Paul prayed that we would come to know the love of Christ. He prayed that we would have the power to grasp this love that is wider than our wanderings, longer than our shortcomings, higher than our best efforts, and deeper than our worst failures. For it is then we are able to put on what we possess and to walk in this love we have come to know and embrace. Lord, let us come to know and believe the love you have for us and may it overflow to every person we encounter!
Monday
May 19, 2025
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
— 1 John 4:10 (ESV)
What does love look like? There are many songs, poems, movies, and books that have tried to capture the essence of this great mystery called love, and some have done a very good job of it. Some have not. But whether prose or poem, redemption and reconciliation form the narrative that gets closest to the heart of love. What begs a tear more than the mending of a broken relationship reconciled through tears of joy? Why? Because in this is love. When greatness grips the hand of waywardness and pulls the lost near, love’s desire is fulfilled.
Have you ever experienced the sweetness of a restored relationship? Can you describe what made this experience so beautiful?
How do you think the Father feels when one of his lost children is returned home? How does heaven respond?
Tuesday
May 20, 2025
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
— John 13:34 (NLT)
Love is learned; it is modeled. We don’t need to be taught selfishness. That comes naturally. But we do need to be taught how to love. In his final days before the crucifixion, Jesus models for us a love that lays aside self and its desires and endures to the end. His whole life, in fact, modeled love for us perfectly. So, who do we love? One another. And that means the difficult brother or sister. That means those who have hurt us. That means the broken. And how do we love? Just as Jesus did — without restraint, with full forgiveness, patiently bearing with weaknesses, receiving with open arms, and speaking the truth needed to be heard, not in retribution or with scorn, but in kindness.
Does loving one another preclude us from loving those in the world? How do you think loving fellow believers differs from loving unbelievers (if it does)?
What is one example of love in action from the life of Jesus? What does acceptance of a fellow believer look like and how may this pose a challenge to you?
Wednesday
May 21, 2025
The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
— Galatians 5:14 (BSB)
The law and the prophets can be summed up by this: love the Lord your God whole-heartedly and love your neighbor as yourself. The working out of that summation, its fulfillment, is given in a single command, the “new” command that Jesus gave to us — love each other. We find the key to doing this in the phrase, “as yourself.” Now that is a practical way to love someone else! Are you hungry? Feed the hungry. Are you cold? Clothe the homeless. Do you need compassion? Then show it. The love of Christ in our hearts is meant not just to warm us, but to draw us up and out of ourselves and to see that there are others besides us in need.
What is the difference between summing something up and fulfilling it? What is one way you can fulfill what is summed up in the law and the prophets?
Who is your neighbor? What resources do you have at your disposal that you could use to love your neighbor?
Thursday
May 22, 2025
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.
— Galatians 5:6 (CSB)
James the apostle wrote that faith without works is dead. You’ve heard the expression, “I’m smiling on the inside?” Not so with faith. Faith comes with active expression, it doesn’t just “smile on the inside.” Paul prayed that love of the Thessalonians would increase and spill over onto others. May it be with us as well — as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus, may our faith-walk express itself in the bright countenance of love for others.
What is one way your faith expresses itself in love? (Ok to do a little boasting here!) What kind of risks are involved in loving others?
When it comes to love, what part do feelings play? How are affection and love tied to one another?
Friday
May 23, 2025
“Love is …”
— 1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV)
How would you finish that sentence, “Love is …”? You might simply quote Paul, “Love is patient, love is kind, it is not …”. But let’s bring the question to a deeper level. How is the Lord Jesus working love into your life today? How would you finish the sentence, “Love is …” experientially? Has the Lord taught you patience through a co-worker? Or maybe he is working kindness in your heart toward your spouse. He may be shaving off the rough edges of rudeness that have hardened your exterior for years. I guess what I’m really asking is, how would your life finish the sentence, “Love is …”? That’s what really matters.
How does popular culture define love? In what ways does that definition come into conflict with scripture?
What aspect of love is the Lord currently working into your life today? What is one love-trait that the Lord has worked into your life?