The Degree Of Our Love For God

Not long after my late wife and I married, I thought I knew the ultimate shortcut to my wife’s heart. I arrived home one afternoon with a bouquet of a dozen red roses behind my back. When I presented the flowers to her, she thanked me, gave me a kiss, sniffed the flowers, and then immediately took them into the kitchen. It wasn’t quite the response I had expected.

It was an introductory lesson in showing me that flowers were not my wife’s primary concern. While she appreciated the gesture of the flowers, she was mentally calculating the cost of the expensive bouquet of flowers — a budget breaker for a young couple who were just starting their married life!

Over the years, I discovered that my wife was far more interested in my time and attention towards her. When I devoted myself to her in an uninterrupted and attentive way, was when she really felt loved.

Have we ever wondered how God wants us to demonstrate our love for Him? We get a clue when we read, “he who loves God must love his brother also” (1 John 4:21; cf. Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 4:9; James 2:8; 1 Peter 1:22; 1 John 3:11,23).

One of the primary ways we show our love for God, is by loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we genuinely love each other, it not only brings pleasure to our heavenly Father, but it is an example to the world of what “true love“ is (John 13:34-35).

The degree of our love for God, is proportionate to the love we display toward our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Beloved, let’s watch for opportunities to tell our fellow Christians how much we love them!

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets