Love to God by Gardener Spring

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. There are many things that may accompany a religious profession and yet prove worthless. A person may be outwardly moral, doctrinally informed, religiously active, spiritually gifted, deeply convicted of sin, and even confident of a past conversion, and still remain unregenerate. None of these, taken alone, decisively answer the question of the soul's true condition before God. They neither prove nor disprove, saving grace. The matter must be tested more deeply.

Scripture is unambiguous. By nature, the human heart is hostile to God. The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. Fallen humanity may recognize God's greatness and even acknowledge His moral perfections, yet finds no pleasure in Him as He truly is. The unrenewed heart does not delight in God's holiness, rejoice in His justice, or love His sovereign rule. Where there is no true delight in God, there is no true love to God.

Therefore, among the clearest and most decisive evidences of the new birth is love to God. This love is not vague sentiment, nor mere gratitude for blessings received, nor fear of punishment escaped. It is a holy affection implanted by the Holy Spirit, grounded in a true apprehension of God's intrinsic excellence. When grace renews the heart, enmity to God is slain, and the soul is reconciled, not merely to God's gifts, but to God Himself. True love always has a true object. The regenerate heart does not invent a deity that suits his fallen tastes, and then worship it. Rather, it loves God just as He is revealed in Scripture. To love a God stripped of holiness, justice, and sovereignty is not love at all, it is hatred of the true God, under the disguise of devotion.

The believer delights in the living God, whose wisdom is unerring, whose power is irresistible, whose purity is unblemished, whose justice is inflexible, whose grace is infinite, and whose purposes are eternal. to be pleased that God is precisely such a being as He is revealed in His Word, that is the essence of genuine love to Him. This love is fundamentally God-centered, not self-centered. There is a vast difference between loving God for His excellence and loving Him merely for personal benefits. If one delights in God only because of what he provides, peace, comfort, escape from hell, then self remains the supreme object. Such affection has no spiritual virtue.

But when the soul is drawn upward to behold God's glory, then it rests in Him as its highest good. In his most spiritual moments, the believer scarcely pauses to consider personal outcomes, because the beauty of God eclipses every lesser concern. With the psalmist, the soul confesses, Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

This love necessarily includes a benevolent regard for God's glory. The renewed heart longs that God be honored in all his works, by all his creatures, in all places of his dominion. Gratitude also flows from this love, for no one who loves God for who he is, can remain unmoved by what he has done, upholding, pardoning, sanctifying, and saving sinners through Jesus. Yet gratitude follows love, it does not create love.

Where love to God is genuine, it is also supreme. God will not accept a divided heart. Whoever loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me. Though even true believers experience seasons of declension, when love to God exists, it reigns above every rival affection. This truth presses unavoidable questions upon the conscience. Do you love God as He truly is, or only as you imagine Him to be? Do you delight in His holiness, as well as His mercy? Do you delight in His justice, as well as His grace? Would you love Him for His excellence, even if you could see no immediate benefit to yourself? Is He your chief joy, your highest beauty, your supreme good?

Supreme love to God is decisive evidence of a renewed heart. To see and to love what is infinitely lovely, to behold and adore what is supremely adorable, is the beginning of heaven itself. This first glow of holy affection is the sacred fire that will burn brighter through eternal ages. If you are a friend of God through Christ, then God will be an everlasting friend to you. Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.