Tonight as I drove home from a meeting, I heard a pastor on the radio talking about loving Jesus as your "First Love." He said to his congregation that there "may be people here who go to church and believe in Jesus but do not love Jesus as your first love." He went on to say how we need to have a "personal relationship with Jesus Christ" (a phrase I'm actually growing to hate) and to love him more than anything or anyone else.
Yea... I'm guessing all of us who are Christians agree with that. But as he said those words, I just was trying to figure out what that really looks like.
I mean really.
I love my wife... that makes sense... I love my daughter... I have family and friends that I love... and sure... I certainly love Jesus. But it IS different. I'm guess more than anything I'm just trying to be honest... my love for God is really different than any other love. And my love for God is reflected in my love for other things.
I mean, you can't really tell how I love my wife by how I love my friends. I know all kinds of people who look really good on the outside and seem like nice people... and then you get to know them and they have a crappy relationship with their spouse. Or you have the person who is the excellent parent, but a lousy spouse.
But how I love people proves how I love God.
So to have God as my "first love" does not mean I necessarily deny my spouse in order to love God, but that I reflect God's love to my spouse. I'm not making sense, am I?
I read this a while back and wrote it in my journal. I'm not sure but I think it is from the book "Halftime."
"I have chosen to make Christ my primary loyalty, but [that does not mean] he is my exclusive loyalty. That was an important distinction, for I still had loyalties to [my wife], my work, to friends, to projects. Christ is at the center of all of that, but he would not stand in the way of those other things which gave me balance and wholeness."
I guess for me what it means to "love God as my first love" is that I allow God to direct the other areas of my life. So hopefully, his priorities direct each area of my life.
Would any of you share what it means for you to love God? To have Jesus as your first love?
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10 comments:
so i've been reading and thinking on this post for the past few days now, and i can't come up with an answer that i can type up with this keyboard.
know that you make perfect sense, and that you're making me think [impressive, no?].
Hey everyone... you might want to read Todd's comments her referenced above. Very interesting. Thanks Todd.
todd... are you still blogging? You have 2 older ones, then the one I found when you first posted here, but not sure if you are still at it. I miss reading you.
I recently started reading The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis. I'm only a chapter in, but it's starting to shed some light on this idea of how we love God, people, and things differently, or sometimes in the same ways. I'll write more when I've gotten a little further.
so phileo is next if i remember correctly... that's a great book. i need to buy it [again].
God is love
My ability to show true love to my wife comes from the love that God gives me. Therefore, the source of my love comes from God, and I guess that makes Him my true love.
Love is a verb, or as my youth minister used to say, "love is an action, not a feeling". I have eros feelings for my wife, and I try to demonstrate my love towards her in my actions. Likewise, I demonstrate my love for God, by following Him and obeying His commands (John 14:15).
It is difficult, perhaps impossible to quantify true love. If you truly love both of your children, is it possible to love one more? I think not, you love both the same. The same is true for my wife and God.
I would disagree that love IS an action and not a feeling. It does, however, lead us to action, if it is, in fact, love. I think this works much like faith. Our faith starts as something inside of us, but leads us to action. If it doesn't, we can't really call it faith.
On the issue of what to love more, C.S. Lewis says in The Four Loves that loving God more than, say, your wife, does not necessarily mean that you feel a stronger emotion for Him, but simply that when it comes down to it, if it ever does, that you would choose Him over her, His will over hers.
In I Corinthians 13, we are told that love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it never fails, it hopes all things and believes all things just to mention a few.
In the English language, love is a verb (specifically an action verb). Being patient, kind, believing, and hoping are all actions that you demonstrate.
In contrast, feelings are the emotional result of some event. I am happy (feeling) because something happens to lift my spirits. I am sad (feeling) because someone does something to hurt me. When we turn love into a feeling, then it becomes the result (or response) of something else. If we turn love into a feeling, then love ends when our feelings change.
Maybe I am a hopeless romantic, but I have to believe that love is more than a feeling. There are some days my wife makes me mad, and my feelings are not positive happy feelings toward her. But I choose to love her based on my faith and commitment to her, not because of my feelings.
If I defined love as a feeling, I would probably be divorced.
I disagree that love is a feeling or an action. Love is a decision. After you had made the decision to love - the feelings and the actions follow. We have a decision to make - will we choose God or nothing? But beware - nature will not allow a void - if you choose nothing - something will swoop in to fill that void. As for me - I choose God.
I'm taking this to a new post... let's continue the conversation. Thanks
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