₦airaland Forum

Our God, His people

Jeremiah 31:3 talks of God's deep love for mankind: "The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.'" God has always had as His plan for human beings a loving relationship within His family. He describes it in eternal terms as "an everlasting love."
Verse 33 says that, in this loving family relationship, "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people." His law is permanently planted in our hearts and minds to show us how to love Him as well as how to love each other.
We see this same theme of loving God and keeping His words continuing in the New Testament. John 14:21, 23 makes this clear: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me . . . If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word . . ."
The New Testament defines love for God the same way as does the Old: "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3). God's law is not heavy, oppressive and burdensome. As we read earlier, it was given for the benefit of humankind.
God tells us repeatedly and clearly that we demonstrate our love for Him by keeping His commandments, and that has been His intent from the beginning. The commandments John discussed were not "new," but were "the word which you heard from the beginning" (1 John 2:7). God's law has been a law of love from the very beginning-from the creation (1 John 3:11).
Many other scriptures make it clear that keeping God's commandments is not something we can do by ourselves. As we repent and yield to Jesus Christ, God's Spirit enables us to allow Jesus Christ to live in us (Galatians 2:20), giving us the desire and capacity to love God and our neighbor.
In Luke 10:25-30, quoted earlier, a man asked Christ what he should do to gain eternal life. Jesus told him the correct answer is "love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind."
Love requires action, not just feelings. How do we know we love God? The consistent, clear, biblical answer is that we love God by keeping His commandments.