<< Devoted to God: Part 3 – How to love with all
So it’s been a while (have been a little busy lately to say the least…) but I thought that it was about time to finally wrap up this mini blog series on devotion to God, what it means and what true devotion is really all about. Over the last few posts we’ve discovered that devotion to God really isn’t about us at all. It isn’t a list of dos and don’ts that we have to live up to. It isn’t a bunch of rules designed to keep us in check. But it is about God himself, his love for us and, in response, our love for him. It is out of this love that our devotion flows.
We’ve looked at the passage in Matthew 22 where Jesus teaches us that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God. We have looked at how in order for us to win at loving him we must first recognise that God is love, that it is only through knowing him that we can succeed in this, that he is Lord over everything (and begin to grasp the enormity of his awesome power, beauty and splendour) and that he is our God – that he is a personal God, that he is 100% for us, knows everything about us and wants the absolute best for us.
We’ve also looked at how we have been given ‘tools and tips’ as to how to live out this devotion successfully – love him with all our heart (align our desires with his, love what he loves, hate what he hates), soul (love God by praising him, worshipping him with everything we have, in everything we do) and mind (align our thoughts with his, begin to think as he thinks, understand as he understands. His wisdom, his decisions, his way..)
And after all of this, after giving us the most important commandment, to love God with everything that we are, Jesus gives us a second “like it”; to love our neighbour as ourself (Mat. 22).
“Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect…We love each other because he loved us first. If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?” – 1 John 4:11-20
We love because he first loved us. The love that we have received, that transformative, renewing love doesn’t, and shouldn’t stop there. What we have received, Jesus is instructing us in turn to give to others. Loving others flows from the incredible love that God has for us.
And Jesus makes it even clearer when he says to love others as we love ourselves. We should treat others how we wish to be treated, give to others as we would like to receive, support others as we would wish to be supported, forgive others as we ourselves would wish to be forgiven. So first things first then – we need to learn to love ourselves!
Not in a boastful, self-serving “I’m better than you” kind of way but in the way that God loves us, by recognising who we are is worthy of love. In the genesis account of creation God saved the very best until last. In the image of God you were created. In psalm 139 it describes you as being delicately crafted by a marvellous creator, weaving all the inmost parts of you together and laying out every moment of your life before you even before you were born. You were created glorious. You were created “very good”.
But then we messed up and we continue to mess up, distorting that wonder we were created to be and becoming something that God did not plan for us. We layered hate, lies, jealousy, pride, shame, apathy and idleness (among may others…) over the perfection that God created, masking our true identities and polluting the good that God created. None of us is perfect. None of us get it right. But the good news is that the potential of who we are was and still is there – because it was created by God and he is way bigger and way better than anything!
God knew that we could never ever reach that perfection again on our own (I don’t know about you but even on my best days, when I try my absolute hardest I still never manage it!) so he had to do something to strip away those layers (sin) for us. He sent his son Jesus die in order to free us from the grip that sin had on us and give us back the freedom to see who we were created to be once more. When Jesus rose again, his perfection, his beauty, his strength became available to each and every one of us. When we accept who Jesus is and what he has done for us, his perfection, beauty and strength, become our perfection, beauty and strength. We need to let God help us to see it, to reach it, to learn to love ourselves the way that He does.
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
This is what real love looks like. And we need to first learn to have this kind of love for ourselves and, in turn, show that same love to others. Jesus is the ultimate example of this kind of love. “Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” (John 13:34) Jesus demonstrated what living a life of service to God and to others looks like. Consistently pray to become more like him.
“And [Jesus] 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 neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the laws…” – Matthew 22:37-39
Simply put, as we deepen and strengthen in our relationship with our incredible God, we are able to love and serve him, ourselves and others better. It is a flow from the God of love to the love of others:
Because God is love, we know love.
As we know love, we love Him.
He loves us, so we can begin to love ourselves.
As we learn to love ourselves, we love others in the same way.
Everything – the way that we think, the way that we feel, the way that we worship and the way that we act – is determined by the two commandments that Jesus spoke – on these two commandments depend all that God lays out for our lives. So how do we develop in this?
Love God, spend time getting to know him, loving him with desires, worship and thoughts.
Learn to love you as God loves you, by seeing yourself the way that God created you to be.
Love people as you love yourself; when we love people, we are loving God.In the everyday practicalities of life, serve him and others – at home, at work, at church – relying on his love, his joy, his strength.
I want to live a life devoted to God and his plans because his ways are the best. My ways, people’s ways, they fail. People let you down. We will let ourselves down. But God won’t ever let us down. I’m putting my money (and my life) on him! I pray that you will too.
Thank you for your incredible love for me and that you created me in your own image.
Help me to let that love mold me and strip away the layers of sin that distort the wonderful creation that you formed.
Help me to love myself in the way that you love me and become a new, confident creation.
Align my desires with yours, help me to see others as you see them and love others as you do.
In you I can do all things. Through ever increasing devotion may I live out your plans, not mine, every day of my life.
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