“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words….”– John 14:23
Do you love God? Wait a minute–not so fast! I mean do you really love God? I don’t mean do you talk about it, or sing about it, or brag about it–do you do it? Next question–How do you know you love God? Because you say so? Because you “feel” it? Because you attend church, etc.? How do you know you love God? Maybe another question will help.
How important is this question? Jesus gave us the answer–“This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:38). So, if we fail here we have failed altogether. This is the most basic fundamental duty of man. It doesn’t get anymore important than this. This is the cure for the ills of society. When a person truly loves God it changes him and it shows. It impacts all of our relationships. Nothing else compares to the importance of loving God and nothing can compensate for a lack of it. You can be the most religious person on earth but it’s all in vain if you don’t love God.
You can heap up treasures until you have no more room to store your possessions, be listed in “Who’s Who?”, travel around the world seeing all the wonders, have your name up in lights, and be admired by millions, and still not be a success. If you don’t love God your life can be described in one word chiseled on your tombstone -“FAILURE”. That tells it all. If you fail to love God you are a failure.
It might be that none of this matters to you, you don’t feel the least bit interested in loving God and you aren’t concerned about what He thinks, but all that will change someday. Each of us are accountable to God. None of us can escape our responsibility to love Him. What you do is your choice, but when you refuse to obey the first and great commandment you are making the worst decision of your life. You need to think about that. Had you been in Peter’s shoes when Jesus said, “lovest thou me?” how would you answer?- HDS
David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346
