Loving God

As Christians, we say we love God. But the question is: do we truly love Him? We need to examine what love really is, and if we do love God, how do we demonstrate that love? Scripture instructs us to examine and test ourselves in this matter. Paul tells us to test ourselves in 2 Corinthians. 

5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

Scripture tells us that we are to love God with all our hearts. Deuteronomy shows us the depth of passion we are to have in our love for Him.

4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Deuteronomy 6:4-7 ESV

We are shown here the passion we are to have in loving our God. Our whole world should revolve around Him. If our minds are consumed with work, family obligations, school, hobbies, or anything else, then we are not loving Him with all our heart, soul, and might. 

Loving God = Loving the Word

Our love for Him should lead us into Scripture to truly know who He is. If we do not love the Word of God, then we do not love God. We cannot genuinely love someone we do not personally know.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1-5 ESV

We cannot claim to love God merely by listening to others talk about the Word or share their opinions. We must know the Word of God for ourselves. As Jesus says in Matthew 4, we must live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”
Matthew 4:4 ESV

These Scriptures in Psalms show us the importance of knowing God’s Word for ourselves.

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
    By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you;
    let me not wander from your commandments!
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
    that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O Lord;
    teach me your statutes!
13 With my lips I declare
    all the rules of your mouth.
14 In the way of your testimonies I delight
    as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts
    and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes;
    I will not forget your word.
Psalms 119:9-16 ESV

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Psalms 119:105 ESV

Psalms tells us that God’s Word gives us light for our path. God’s Word literally shows us how to live our lives to please Him. 

Learning to Love

First Corinthians 13 gives us God’s definition of love. 

4 Love is patient and kind;
love does not envy or boast;
it is not arrogant
5 or rude.
It does not insist on its own way;
it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
8 Love never ends.
As for prophecies, they will pass away;
as for tongues, they will cease;
as for knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV

We can use 1 Corinthians 13 as a test to examine the condition of our love for God. We need to ask ourselves: Do I love Him the way He wants to be loved? God asked me this very question. As I reflected on these verses, I realized with shock that I didn’t truly love God.

This was a pivotal moment in my life. God began speaking to me about loving Him and loving others, especially those I found difficult to love. It was a challenging process, as I came to understand that I had not been loving God as He intended—and, as a result, I had not been loving others according to His definition of love either. This awakening marked a significant learning curve in my life. At that time, the Holy Spirit led me to Matthew 22.

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 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. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:34-40 ESV

After reading Matthew 22:34-40 and reflecting on all that I had been shown, I realized I didn’t truly understand what love was. I made it my life’s goal to learn how to love God with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind.

As I embraced this, I also realized I needed to learn how God wanted me to love people. I made a conscious decision to dedicate my life to loving God and loving others according to His way. It was both challenging and exciting.

This realization led me to understand that I could not truly love God without learning to love His people—whether they were strangers, difficult to love, or even people who did not like me. I must love each one as He commands. Jesus demonstrated this in every area of His life, and we too must learn to love others as He did.

The only way to grow in this love is to meditate on God’s Word day and night, live in the Spirit, and obey Him. As we do, He will teach us how to love as He loves.

8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Joshua 1:8 ESV

Living in the Spirit

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Galatians 5:14-26 ESV

You learn to love like Him by learning to live in His Spirit. Living in the Spirit means submitting to God in every area of your life. When you choose this life, you begin to understand that you are not your own—you were bought with a price.

19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV

The Cost

Learning to love Him and live in His Spirit will cost you your worldly life.

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
Matthew 16:24-26 ESV

Only the person who truly loves God can die to their flesh in this way. That is why Jesus tells us to count the cost of discipleship.

25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Luke 14:25-35 ESV

These are weighty Scriptures, but they are the truth and bring life. I pray that you take the time to examine them for yourself. I pray that you count the cost and pick up your cross to follow Jesus, because this life on earth is brief, but eternity lasts forever. As Jesus says, “Whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”

39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 40 “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
Matthew 10:39-40 ESV

References:

• "Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.”

• Edited 01/2026