Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 18:1 ESV

1 I love you, O LORD, my strength.

Matthew 22:37-38

37 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.

38 This is the great and first commandment.

I John 4:10, 19-21

10 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.

19 We love because he first loved us.

20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

It is both the command of God and the privilege of the believer to love God. God whom the saint is to love is God as He reveals Himself in the Scriptures. Any god other than the one revealed in the Holy Writ is an idol and to love, believe in, or obey any god other than He who is revealed in Scripture is idolatry.

What is the love of God? It is love of a master whom one chooses to serve over any alternatives. It is the love of subject to his Sovereign who is supremely wise, benevolent, and able to protect. It is the love of a child for his parent who fulfills all the offices of a parent to the full extent of what the heart can desire.

There are two elements to this love. There is the element of commitment. This is so necessary and basic it must be said that there is no love without a knowledgeable unchanging commitment. A servant is committed to his master to do his will, to receive his instructions, and depend upon His provision. The love of God, if it is true, has this content.

Secondly the love of God is emotional. The expression of this love in poetry, music, art, and joy are certain indications of the involvement of the heart in love for God. The worship and devotion of God’s people in the Scriptures inform us of the emotional commitment they have.

There is no greater joy which issue in a full emotional release than to know you are in the presence of God who has no other intent toward you than love. These moments may come all too seldom but they do come. Every believer knows the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The question which arises is how is that love best known and explained. First this love is reciprocal. It is not original in the bosom of fallen man. It is a response. I John 4:10, 19. No one ever loves God prior to God’s demonstrated love toward that particular person. This love of God is particular and personal. He knows His beloved by name and personally demonstrates His love to that person. In return we love God. We love Him first and supremely.

Secondly this love has a demonstration that is common to all believers. This is the believer’s love for God’s Word. Psalm 119:97 “Oh how I love your law”. This should not surprise us. God has invested His word with an authority and quality He tells that has magnified it above His name. Psalm 138:2D NKJV “For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Those who accuse the believer of idolizing the Scriptures do not understand and have no part in or love for God’s word and confident dependence upon it.

Again this love for God is demonstrated in our love for God’s people. Do not be mistaken on this point. John makes this an unyielding qualification of true love for God. I John 4:20-21 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. What can be clearer than this? There is no wriggle room here. Anyone who can identify themselves to you as a believer is due your affection with all the offices it provides. The believer’s love for his brothers and sisters must be as encompassing as God’s throne of grace. And I dare you to discriminate here. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Finally the believer’s love must center upon the Savior. I Corinthians 16:22 “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” Our Lord, come! Paul states the failure to love Christ as a sure and deserved sign of God’s judgment. As God’s love is demonstrated in Christ‘s cross work (I John 4:10), so our love for him should be the warp and woof of our faith and service to and for God.

To fail to love Christ is to fail to desire heaven, have a true motive for godly service, and to have any love for God’s church. Christ loves the church and gave himself for it. We love him and therefore we love that which He loves.

The believer loves the triune God. He loves God’s way of salvation by grace. And he loves supremely the Lord Jesus Christ who is the image of and the only revealer of the invisible God. Blessed be His name.