To Love God Is to Seek Him – The Kingdom Curriculum XV (1)

To Love God Is to Seek Him

The great commandment

And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and the first commandment.” Matthew 22:37, 38

Seek the LORD and His strength; see His presence continually. Psalm 105:4

Loving God Is a Defining Calling

The Law of God is all of grace. It originates in God’s gracious being and character. It expresses His love for sinful creatures who, without His guidance, would be left only to their own destructive choices and ways (Prov. 16:25). And, as the Apostle John reminds us, the commandments of God define the very terms of love, which is the hallmark of Christian discipleship (1 Jn. 5:1-3; Jn. 13:34, 35). Anyone who glibly declares himself to be “not under Law, but under grace” is deceived and headed for trouble.

All the commandments of God are designed to facilitate two great, overarching duties, the first of which is loving God. This is a full-time calling, not just something we fulfill in occasional assemblies or gatherings for religious purposes. Loving God is a way of life. We may break down “loving God” into a few concise activities, the most important of which is “seeking” God. Obviously, whatever we love–really love, with every facet of our souls and every fiber of our strength–we will devote ourselves to pursue. Those who love God seek Him.

In fact, so constantly do they seek Him that they can almost be defined by this activity. At any moment, in any situation, whatever else they may be doing, those who really love God are seeking Him, as the psalmist commands. They keep Him in their minds and hearts at all times; listen carefully to discern His leading; reflect often in order to enjoy His presence; commune with Him ceaselessly in prayer; and are transformed into His image as the Spirit works in them from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:12-18).

For all who truly love the Lord, seeking Him is their constant preoccupation. This is the clearest indicator that we truly love God.

Learn to love God more by meditating in His Law daily. You can order your copy of The Law of God today and take up this discipline with joy. Go to www.MyParuchia.com, point your browser to “Publications,” then click on the drop-down option, “Waxed Tablet Publications.”

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore.

T.M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.