Love God

Matthew 22:34-38 

Introduction

We have been looking at what Jesus wants from us. This is an extremely important question for us to wrestle with. Thankfully, we have plenty of material available for us to find Jesus’ thoughts on the matter. Last week, we saw that Jesus wants us to follow him. Logically, that is the first thing we must do. But that is not the end of the story. Once we become followers of Jesus, there are other things that Jesus wants from us. 

This morning, we start a two part miniseries within our series on what Jesus wants. In the passage that we are looking at, we have someone coming to Jesus and asking: ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ That sounds like a very reasonable question, one that I would probably have asked if I had met Jesus during his earthly ministry. Unfortunately, this person is not asking out of curiosity or personal growth. He is trying to test Jesus. Basically, this person is ready to respond to whatever Jesus says with an alternative answer that will hopefully make Jesus look bad in front of the crowd. Jesus, of course, knows this and has an answer that cannot be turned against him.

Of course the person asking and the crowd listening were probably expecting him to name one of the Ten Commandments. The question seems to assume that, but that is not where Jesus goes. Instead, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:5 about loving God. This is a verse that they would have been very familiar with because the preceding verse is the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deuteronomy 6:4) This is a verse that Jews then as today, recite on a regular basis. Jesus goes on to add a second love commandment, also from the Old Testament, but that is for next week. 

Jesus told his questioner, as well as the crowd and us today, that what he wants for us is to love God. That is pretty hard to argue with. Loving God seems rather basic. In fact it could be argued that I could just end my sermon with the affirmation that we are to love God and just leave it there. But I am not going to do that. Instead we are going to take a closer look at loving God, especially the question of how difficult or easy it is to love God.

Struggling With Love

How easy is it to love God? There are people who claim that it is always easy to love God. They look at all of the blessings in their life and are overcome with love for God. Of course this does not require that everything be perfect but if life is generally good and you can readily see God’s provision in life, it is relatively easy to love God.

But what happens when life is really bad? Is there a level of tragedy that makes loving God really difficult? I recently read a memoir but a person whose Jewish parents were in concentration camps during the Second World War. He makes it clear that the Holocaust prevents him from believing in God. Because even if he saw evidence for the existence of God, that God would allow such horrific events, means to him, God is not worth worshiping much less loving. Sadly, there have been many attempted genocides since then. In our own lifetime, the genocide in Rwanda included Christians pastors participating in the killing Tutsi innocents. How does someone who experience that love God?

These major world events are one thing, but what about things that happen to us on a regular basis? What about illnesses in ourselves or loved ones? What about people who have been repeatedly abused? How can they love God?

The first thing I would want to say is that we need to have grace with others and ourselves. Even the Psalms show some tremendous frustration with God when things go bad. Such is not the time to condemn people for not seeming to love God. 

At some point, it is important for us to put the blame where it belongs, on the humans who did the terrible things. It takes time to get there but it is an important transition. Finally, we also need to remember that love is not necessarily a feeling. Have you ever been really angry with someone you loved? You knew that you loved them but you did not feel it in the moment. The same can be true in our love for God. 

Demonstrating Love

So exactly how are we to demonstrate our love to God? The problem is that people tend to assume that all other people should show it the way they themselves show love to God. For example I have been in Christian circles that have focused completely on the emotional element and they were very suspicious of intellectual love for God. But I have also been in Christian circles that have focused completely on the intellectual element and were very suspicious of emotional love for God. Each group would have said that the other group was doing it wrong.

One of the most important events in my own spiritual life was the moment I realized that God made us all different and how we show love to God can be different from someone else. I really had felt condemned when what came natural for me was not the same as what came natural for others in my church. When I realized that I was already showing love to God, even if it was different from the ways my friends demonstrated it, everything changed.

For some people, showing love to God may be all about spending hours in singing worship songs or in praying. For others, showing love is about fighting for justice for the marginalized or providing for the physical needs of those who are living in poverty. Some show love through quiet contemplation and others by actively sharing Jesus with everyone they encounter.

I have noticed that it is really difficult for those that are especially passionate about the way they show love to God to be tolerant of the way other people show love for God. A person who spends six hours serving in a soup kitchen cannot understand why that other Christians spends that same time in prayer. The person who loves to sing hymns cannot understand why that other Christian spends their time reading a theology textbook. If the way I love God is right for me, should it not be right for everyone? No, actually it should not. We are all created different.

We show love differently in our human relationships. Some people tend to buy gifts, say something nice, perform a chore, offer a hug, or just have quality time. Probably one of those comes most naturally to you. In the same way, we can demonstrate love to God in the way we are created and not worry about how we compare to that other person. In fact, attempting to force someone to show love in an unnatural way makes following this commandment very difficult.

Conclusion

What does Jesus want? Once we start following Jesus, we should be loving God. This is the greatest commandment. This is realistic love. We take into account the experience and the personality of the individual. A person who grew up very negligent parents may struggle with how to love God. There are events that happen in our life that may make us frustrated and even angry with God. Remember that even Jesus said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Thankfully love is not just an emotion. We can choose to love in the good times and the bad. We can show love in the way that is consistent with the way God created you, whether you are a thinker, a feeler, or a doer. That’s not to say that we cannot stretch ourselves by experimenting with other forms of loving God. Singing songs is not what comes natural to me, but I do it. The point is that we embrace who God made us to be and we demonstrate our love to God from that place.