It seems strange and even disturbing to some people that the eternal God, the infinitely good, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, creator and sovereign ruler of the universe and all that is in it, who reveals Himself in the person and work of Jesus Christ, would command men, women and children alike to love Him with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength, and condemn to an eternity in Hell those who would not (Matthew 22:35-38) (1 Corinthians 16:22) (Psalm 9:17).
Such a God, in their mind, would be like a lonely, unhappy mega rich uncle or spinster aunt who demands servile expressions of love and affection from all who hope to be his or her heirs.
But this is not the infinitely glorious God of the Bible. And thus, let me state this as emphatically as I can – God’s command for us to love Him personally and passionately above all else in His creation is not a command given by a Being who needs anything from us, period!! He is not trying to cure His loneliness or overcome His sense of emptiness or increase his significance or improve His self-esteem as we many times are when we long to have someone love us. We all desire and need to have someone we value and delight in to value and delight in us, someone who is as concerned for and committed to our happiness and wellbeing as we are. God is love, and thus God, who is also the source of all goodness, is the one alone who can ultimately fulfill and eternally satisfy our desperate longings for love (1 John 4:16) (James 1:16-17).
God Himself does not depend on anything or anyone for His existence, nor for the enjoyment of His existence. All that exists proceeds from Him and is dependent upon Him for its or their existence. (John 1:1-3) (Romans 11:33-36) (Acts 17:24-25) (Psalm 50:10-12) (Psalm 145:15-16).
God graciously introduces Himself in the Bible as I AM or YAHWEH (Exodus 3:13-14), revealing Himself to be an eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, self-determining, infinitely good, perfectly just, eternally happy being, who exists as three separate but co-equal persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirt, each possessing the same divine essence and attributes, existing together in an eternal love relationship filled with infinite joys and pleasures beyond our comprehension (Psalm 90:2) (Exodus 34:5-7) (Psalm 16:11). Although we were and are not necessary to God, we were created by God in His image and likeness out of the infinite blessedness of His being and the overflow of His abundant goodness, that we may share in that relationship, not as divine equals, but as beloved children, knowing, loving and being loved by God and one another (Genesis 1:26-27) (2 Corinthians 13:14).
God reveals in Isaiah 43:7, that we were created for His glory, such that we would display and enjoy aspects of the infinite perfections of His being, while being enjoyed by God in our enjoyment of Him and His creation, just as loving parents in playing with their little children, enjoy and are enjoyed by them (Zephaniah 3:17) (Psalm 36:7-8).
But mankind, beginning with Adam and Eve, having been created so that we could love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and enjoy the infinite expressions of His love under His loving authority forever, rejected this purpose as well as His just rule over our lives. Instead, deceived by the devil and motivated by self-love, we chose self-rule, pursuing our individual happiness on our own terms, rather than in obedience to God, believing our greatest joy, our greatest pleasures, our ultimate fulfillment and satisfaction would be found within the creation, rather than in a loving relationship with our Creator. In making this choice, we have brought nothing but corruption, conflict and death into the creation, a creation that God originally designed and proclaimed to be good (Romans 1:18-32) (Genesis 1:31).
As a result, we live under the wrath and judgement of God, cut off from the glorious life of loving and being loved by Him for which we were created, destined to be cut off forever in the dark and horrific place the Bible refers to as Hell (Genesis 3:17-24) (Matthew 25:30).
Although the Bible says that God takes no pleasure in such judgement (Ezekiel 33:11), and that He delights in doing us good (Jeremiah 32:41), our unwillingness to love God as He commands and deserves in no way detracts from or disrupts His eternal joy and happiness. His goodness, wisdom, power and glory are not diminished by our choosing to disregard, dishonor, or disobey Him, and His influence and dominion will extend throughout time and space over all of creation independent of our acceptance, approval, or worship of Him. Christian author, John Piper, in his wonderful book, The Pleasures of God, emphasizes throughout the book that God is happy being God, with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit delighting in one another (Matthew 3:16-17).
In our rejection of God as the object of our deepest love and source of our greatest joy, and in the setting of our affections and desires on the temporary things and relationships of this world as the ultimate source of our happiness and wellbeing (1 John 2:15-17), we are constantly frustrated, never satisfied or content, always on the make, always looking to the sin corrupted world for new and exciting experiences and activities, new inventions and new relationships to cure our loneliness, fill our emptiness and alleviate our boredom (Ecclesiastes 2:1-11).
And then we die, unfulfilled, unchanged, with all too many of us never truly loving or enjoying the love of another, most importantly, the love of God, a love that is revealed and offered to each of us in the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ. We are told in John 3:16 that whosoever will believe in Him to where we not only trust in His love for us as it was displayed on the cross, but by the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart, come to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, will not perish in Hell, but receive the gift of eternal life, the glorious life with God for which we were created, that God who cannot lie, has promised to all who love Him. (Romans 5:8-9) (Romans 5:5) (Luke 10:25-28) (Titus 1:2) (1 John 2:25) (John 17:3).
Grace and Peace ×
Amen❣️