The Difference Between Our Love for God and God's Love for Us - Part 1

I'll start by saying that it's a whole lot easier for me to blog on an article written by someone else (and the thoughts I have on it), but tonight I will begin a two part series on love -- attempting a rare original thought. The idea I'm shooting for is to use the Bible to show the vast difference between our love for God and God's love for us. Though similar (largely because we are made in the image of God), I think we'll see that the Bible portrays the two differently.

Since it's obvious from this blog that I'm a big fan of and even too much a critic of music, I'll confess to the world the thing in praise music that bothers me more than anything. I'm going to quote lines from two common praise songs that are very popular, and I even like these songs, but what I want to show is that I have a hard time singing them. Again, I want to make it clear that I don't want to put these songs down. Stay with me. The songs I'm pulling some lyrics out of are "Jesus, Lover of My Soul" and "I Love You Lord." Good praise songs.

Jesus, lover of my soul
Jesus, I will never let you go
You've taken me from the miry clay
Set my feet upon the Rock and now I know
I love You, I need You, though my world may fall
I will never let you go
My Savior, my closest Friend
I will worship You until the very end.

I Love You, Lord
And I lift my voice to worship You
O my soul, rejoice!
Take joy, My King, in what You hear,
May it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear.

Notice the words I have italicized. I admit that I have a lot of trouble singing those lines and often find myself changing the words around as I sing these songs so that I don't have to say things like "I love you, Lord" and make them instead "You love me, Lord." Yeah, that's weird I know, but I'm different guy. Anyway, what does the Bible teach us about our love? How can I learn to sing those italicized lines with confidence? Here are a few passages:

John 14:15 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command."

John 14:21 - "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."

John 14:23-24 - "Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me."

1 John 4:19-21 - "We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

John 21:15-18 - "When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?" "Yes, Lord," he said, "you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Feed my lambs." Again Jesus said, "Simon son of John, do you truly love me?" He answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." Jesus said, "Take care of my sheep." The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."

Dictionary.com has 28 definitions for love. I don't even want to go there. So I'll go to the Bible. What is interesting about these 5 passages above, is that the Bible (4/5 verses are quotes from Jesus in fact) seems to indicate that our love for God is highly conditional. It is as if God is trying to tell me that I can have all the affectionate feelings I want, sing all the words of praise I want, and even mentally consent to the fact that I love God -- but if I'm not obeying God, not loving my brother, and not feeding his sheep (all forms of doing what God wants us to), then I'm not really loving God and my feelings are lies. And this is why I have a hard time singing those songs above. It's not because I don't like them or it's bad doctrine or anything like that, it's because I know the disobedience in my heart, I know when I'm not feeding the sheep, and I can only rest in the fact that God loves me anyway -- only because of Christ and not because of any good in me or because I love him. No way. John 14 cannot be anymore clear. If you obey God, you love him. If you don't obey him, you don't love him. I take that to mean that my love for God is conditional and based on my obedience. One might at first glance look at the John 14 and 1 John verses and say that the passages are speaking of generalities, a believer obeys and an unbeliever disobeys. But I think the fifth passage above throws that thought off some. Why would Jesus have that conversation with Peter? Why do you think he asked him three times? Surely, it wouldn't have anything to do with the three times he denied Christ, would it? Maybe, maybe not. It's not like in Peter's denial he was neglecting the sheep. But he was a coward and disobeyed and failed to love Christ in a moment of weakness. Don't we all go through those times? Could I sing about how much I love God after verbally bashing the referees in the Arizona - Illinois game tonight? Hardly. Was I loving my brother? No way. Was I loving God? If I say yes then I'm a liar. So I'll choose to focus on the love God has for me, turn away from my wickedness, be renewed again -- and then I can sing...maybe about my love for God, but probably more on his great love for me.