When buying a new appliance or device, you receive an owner’s manual that explains how to operate and take care of your new purchase. Similarly, God created us and wrote the owner’s manual for us, the Bible. As a young girl, I adhered to God’s laws because I imagined religion required following the rules like “a good girl”. When I departed for college, I thought “finally I am free to do what I want to do!”
Years later, while pondering the Bible, I glimpse the amazing truths about love. God supplied His commandments for our benefit because he loves us and desires the best for us. Instead of following the rules, Jesus urges us to follow Him! Thus, the entire Bible summed up in one word is LOVE, God’s unfailing love for us and the requirement to love God and love people.
Truth #1: God is love
The Hebrew word hesed in the Old Testament invokes God’s indescribable love for his people. It is translated into many different words in the Bible because there is no one English word to express the depth of God’s love. Hesed entails faithful, unfailing, steadfast, true, persistent, upright, generous, merciful, and completely undeserved love.
Likewise, in the New Testament, the Greek word agape is translated as love. Agape love personifies God, the very nature of love itself. Agape represents faithful, committed, sacrificial, selfless, gracious, unconditional, and undeserved love.
One of the most famous scriptures describes God’s love, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NIV).
Everything from God flows from His love, the perfect example of true love. Consequently, He created man in his image to love and be loved. Above all, the lovingkindness of a Father who sent his son to die for the forgiveness of the sins of His people epitomizes agape and hesed that endures throughout eternity.
Truth #2: God commands us to love
Love God
Jesus explained the most important commandment, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36-39, NLT).
Loving God means putting Him first always and accepting His love for us. But first, we have to get to know God before we can love him. How do we get acquainted with God? By spending time with him. If your best friend only called you when he or she desperately needed something, it would not be much of a friendship. Genuine friends keep in contact when things are going well, besides being there in a crisis. Relate to God by reading and studying His Word, the Bible, and by speaking to him in prayer. Spend time with him and invite him into your life.
Love people
The second part of God’s commandment declares love your neighbor as yourself. And our neighbors include all the people we know, and all people in the world, even though we do not know them.
Jesus imparted compassion to the people he met. He realized their needs and helped them as he could. In the same way, we are appointed to be like Jesus, to have compassion for people who are suffering or who have unmet needs. Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Prayerfully ask for guidance on who to help in whatever way you can. For example, call a sick friend, volunteer in your community or sponsor a child through an organization like Food for the Hungry.
The Bible says, “Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing” (1 Peter 3:8-9 CSB).
Love people we know, friends, family, coworkers, and acquaintances. Unfortunately, people are imperfect and not always loveable. So how do we love others, especially if they do not love us back or even hate us? By loving people as God loves them. By our human strength, we cannot love others, but by imitating Jesus, we succeed. Specifically, accept others as Jesus accepts us and forgive others as God has graciously forgiven us.
Truth #3: You Must Love Yourself First
Before you can love other people, you must love yourself first, because God loves you. Accept God’s love for you. He created us to love us. Indeed, we cannot earn his love or lose his love. We are his masterpiece.
Paul wrote, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT).
But isn’t self-love narcissistic? Not if we look at ourselves as God sees us. In reality, we are unworthy sinners, sentenced to death, and never good enough. But God graciously does not give us the punishment we deserve. God deemed us worthy of his Son Jesus dying for us. God loved us that much, so see yourself through God’s eyes as his chosen, loved and redeemed child.
As soon as we realize how much God loves us, it liberates us from trying to impress other people or worrying about what others think of us. Our identity is in Christ. Stop comparing yourself to others. You can rest. You belong to Him. Forever.
Truth #4: Love is a Choice
Choose to love or reject God. He will not force you to love him. He will pursue you and even do whatever it takes to bring you to him, but he waits for you to accept him. If you accept him, the Holy Spirit allows you to love God.
Choose to love people as God loves them. Perhaps “love at first sight” exists. But continuing to love as God loves us requires the power of God. Because people will eventually treat us poorly, fail, betray, disappoint and annoy us. Therefore, the only way we can continue to love people is choosing to love as God loves us.
As scripture states, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (I Corinthians 13:4-7).
Conclusion
God created us in His image to love, serve, and worship Him. His Word instructs us on how to manage our lives. God established his commandments for our well-being because He loves us. The most important commandment requires us to love God and love people. We cannot love God unless we also love ourselves and love other people in the world. Pursue the journey to wellness by loving God, our families, friends, and neighbors in the world.
