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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
First, loving God requires knowing Him, and that knowledge begins with His Word. It may sound glib, but to know Him is to love Him. To love God is to worship and praise Him. "It is written: 'Worshi...
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Bruce Lyon
We are to love God as part of the creed of the lord Jesus: Mark 12:29-30: Hear, O Israel; YHVH - Yahovah our God is one Lord: And you shall love YHVH - Yahovah your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is none other commandment greater than these. Abraham Lincoln was asked why he didn't attend or belong to a church, and his answer was if they put the words of Mark 12:20-30 on their entry way and the people who go to that church practice the words of Mark 12:20-30, he would go to that church. No how do we love God? We do so as followers of His beloved son Jesus by keeping the commandment He gave to Jesus to give to us. Ex 20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. De 5:10 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. John 14:21 He that has my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. This is what faith-obedience is all about, these are the works produced by faith that James was talking about. Notice what Jesus says: Joh 17:8 For I have given unto them the words which You gave me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from You, and they have believed that You did send me. Joh 14:10 Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, He does the works. John 3:34 For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God: for God gives not the Spirit by measure unto him. John 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father Who sent me, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. So to love God is to do all that He has given us to do through His beloved son Jesus. All that Jesus commands us to do, like "seek you first the kingdom of God" Mat:6:33, etc., "love one another", etc. When we love our neighbor as ourselves we show love to the Father because He is love and enables us to love others, because whatever He commands us to do, He enables us to be able to do! Halil Yah - Praise God!
Michael Tinsley
The commandment to love God 'with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength', as Michael wrote, is not something we can do on our own. The attempt to love God and to love Him more solely by striving to do so is a _legalistic teaching heard in many churches every Sunday. Any of us with children know you can't _tell them to love one another. We see the absurdity of saying that and can see the wrongness in trying to love God by our own endeavors. It just won't work. Just as we couldn't be saved by anything we did but by what God did for us, we learn to love God more every day by understanding He loved us _first. Loving God comes easier then because we see the perfect example of His grace by Jesus's death on the cross and by His resurrection. God provided the only way for us to be saved and He provides the knowledge and understanding we need to truly love Him through the written Word, our Bibles and through our prayers. The more we come to know the enormity and depth of what Jesus did for us and the _ultimate sacrifice He made, the easier it becomes to love and worship God. Love for God is a gift which keeps revealing itself and growing stronger as we learn more about Jesus's love. As it unfolds through prayer and study and through sharing with others, our love deepens and broadens. Paul said it best in Ephesians 3:14-19, the last verse reading,'to know the love of Christ which _surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God', (emphasis mine).
James Kraft
To love God is to trust in His son. We love Him because He first loved us. We love him because He sent His son to die for us that we may have eternal life. He went to the cross and did what we could not do for ourselves. He gave us His perfect righteousness in place of our unrighteousness. God gave us the way, the truth, and the life, all wrapped up in Jesus our Savior. Since we cannot live up to Gods standard of righteousness, He gave us Jesus. Jesus is grace or love. He laid down His life a ransome for us. We have been bought and paid for by His blood sacrifice. Now we belong to Jesus who gave His life for us. His grace is greater than all our sin. Oh if I could only love Him more. Oh wretched man that I am. Who will deliver me from this body of death? Jesus Christ! My love for Him is nothing compared to His love for me.
Salem Markus Purba
To love God is to obey the Word and the commandments (Matthew 28: 20; John 14: 15); since man has a knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3: 22), God has commanded us to do good in the 1st-5th of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 1-12) and not to do evil in the 6th-10th of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20: 13-17). No one is good-except God alone (Mark 10: 18; Luke 18: 19); so, to love God means we need God to enable us to do good (John 6: 65; 14: 16-17).
Ariel Bennissi
My understanding of what shows יהוה/God that we love Him is to do what יהושע/Jesus did. That would be walking in the Torah that יהוה/God gave us. He considered Avraham His friend and He made a covenant with him because... Gen 26:5 because Abraham listened to My voice and heeded My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My Torah. Messiah stated that all his words were those of his Father. Therefore the words he spoke came directly from God the Father. Messiah never had any commandments of his own they were all those of his Father. Therefore, to follow the commandments of the Father is then loving the Father.
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