Loving God

Psalm 91:14-16

“Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him;
I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
¹⁵ “He will call upon Me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
¹⁶ “With a long life I will satisfy him
And let him see My salvation

What a magnificent promise from our Precious God.  “Because he (that’s me and you) has loved me, therefore I will deliver him.”  We are told in many passages of Scripture, that God loves us, but here we see the fruits of “Loving God.”

⁵ But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: ⁶ the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.  (1 John 2:5-6)

I tend to think that when a person knows they are going to die, the last words that they speak are probably the most important things  they have ever said in their whole lives. As I look over Jesus last words to His disciples beginning in the Gospel of John, chapters 13-17,  I can’t help but notice here, that Jesus calls us over and over again, to love God and to love one another.  If we spend our lives doing these two things, we have lived well.

One of the most compelling passages on love I have ever found is in 1 John, chapters 3&4.  I would highly recommend reading through both chapters to get the full impact of the message, but for now I will cut and paste especially poignant verses below.

¹¹ For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (1 John 3:11)

¹⁸ Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. ¹⁹ We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him ²⁰ in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things. (1 John 3: 18-20)

²³ This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. (1John 3:23)

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. ¹³ By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:7-14)

Perhaps the most compelling aspect in all of this, for me, is found in the above stated verse:

If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. (4:12)

If we really want to grow in Christ, if we really want to love God more; we must practice loving one another.  I love 1 Corinthians 13,  it is called the love chapter, but what is shares with us is so revealing.  We can know a lot of stuff, have lots of knowledge, faith, etc. but if we don’t have love, God’s love, for one another, we have nothing.

Jesus, help us to carry out your last wishes on earth, to love one another as You have loved us…Amen and Amen