How Shall We Love God?

And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge . . . (Philippians 1:9 ESV)

Love for God is the supreme motive for all Christian work and worship. Love for God is also what we lost in the fall. Thankfully, it is love for God that is being restored to us in Christ. This love for God indeed changes everything in us. It gives us a heart for worship and a desire for knowing God more. It gives us a purpose and a hope--for we know that if we love God it is only because he first loved us. John says so in his first epistle.

We love him, because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19 KJV)

God alone is supremely worthy of love and that lack of love for him in us is the confirmation of our fallenness. Conversely, the restoration of that love is confirmation of the Spirit's work within us. When we love God the way we should, we desire to obey him. We desire to please him. We desire for him to be glorified in us and through our lives. Jesus put it bluntly:

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15 ESV)

Is that true? Think about it. When we live for self it is because we love self supremely. This is our default position. This is where we all are without Christ. Self is king. Self is whom we serve. But when we begin to love God more than self then things begin to change. God resumes his rightful place in our hearts. We desire what he desires. We seek to please him. We honor him and want to serve him. Our lack of service for God is nothing more nor less than a lack of love for him. But when we love him, we keep his commandments just as Jesus said.

What happens when our hearts are given to God? We begin to desire the things that he desires. We begin to see things in the way that he does. We desire his glory. His priorities become ours and we give ourselves to him completely.

When Paul says about the Philippians that he prays for them that their love would "abound more and more" he is implying that a love for God already exists within them. Well, of course it does. All those who are genuinely in Christ have a love for God. But how does Paul know this for certain about the Philippians to whom he is writing? What is the evidence of their love for God that is foremost in his mind as he writes?

The evidence of their love is the gift they have sent to Paul by the hand of Epaphroditus. Because they love God they have desired to take part in the work of God. They understand that they have a role to play in the Fellowship of the Gospel and part of that role is ministering to Paul's needs as he waits to go before Caesar for "the defense and confirmation of the gospel." As their already evident love for God begins to "abound more and more" they will serve God in even greater ways than this, and this is what Paul is praying for in them.

Do you love God? I know you do. Then serve him. Give yourself to him. Find a need within the ministries of your church that fits your gifts and abilities and jump in. Don't do it half-heartedly, for that would be a reflection of a shallow love. Do it completely. Love God deeply and serve him with everything you have. This is the key to joy. This is real living.