For The Love of God

“The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

-1 Timothy 1:5

His expression revealed that he was dumbfounded by what I thought was elementary. So here we were, me and a new friend, both confused because we approached each other from different grounds, different viewpoints. We were discussing our current relationships: me and my beautiful girlfriend, and him and the girl he was pursuing. It surprised me that he was shocked by the intentionality that I set in place for my relationship. But as he began to share his current predicament in his pursuit of a certain lady, it became clear to me that the reason we differed so much in terms of the way we approach our relationship is because we both have two very different definitions of love.

Now that I think about it, society itself struggles for a more solid definition of love. Too many times do I hear people vowing that they’ll give everything up for their partner and how that is love, but then two weeks later they give up their partner instead of everything. And then people mask over that with this vague statement saying, “Things change,” or, “You never know what is going to happen.” Then I hear a lot of people who adopt the definition of love stated in 1 Corinthians 13. But then I guess the reading of the Word doesn’t change them because they become impatient, unkind, and unloving. We live in a culture that is starving for a more concrete definition to love.

Yet because I have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, I feel that I have a concrete definition of love that is present in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I believe the primary reason me and my friend differed on our views of love are because I love God. Loving someone by loving God is such a distinct love that it contrasts the world’s definition of love. It is a love characterized by intentionality and foundation.

Speaking on intentionality: Jesus was intentional with His love. He didn’t come and say, “I love them but I don’t know if I’ll die for them. We’ll see how it goes. Things change. You never know what is going to happen.” No! The intentionality of His love saved our lives!

Now speaking upon foundation: the foundation I talk about is present in the verse above. Because He died for us, He made His love complete in us by giving us the foundation of loving out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

For the pure heart, is your heart inclined towards the good of your partner? And when I say good, I mean the good established through Scripture, not what is socially acceptable or your definition of good.

For the good conscience, are you keeping your relationship guilt free? Because true love doesn’t carry the burden of a guilty conscience. We get this idea from what Jesus did for us on the cross. Because check this out: Jesus died for our burden of sin. We were guilty but because He came and offered grace, by His grace, we can have a clear conscience. We can repent and not deal with that burden of sin! It is out of a clear conscience that we follow Him and love Him by obeying His commandments. That is why is 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love because He first loved us.” Because He loved us, He gave us the grace needed to clear our conscience, not so that we can mess up more, but so we can build a relationship that is modeled out of His love for us. So that we can truly love with a clear conscience. Jesus has forever cleared our conscience, but that calls for not putting our self in a position where we are to feel guilty again. If we truly love because He loved us first, our love should affirm His love by having a guilt free conscience.

And for the sincere faith, are you loving your partner by loving God? For if Jesus Christ is love, then you must know that true love if you want to truly love your partner. You must have faith in the one who makes faith possible. In order to truly love you must love that which is True.

So here is the kicker: without true love from God, one cannot attain this love with foundation. For what is someone to keep their heart pure for? What is someone to have a good conscience against? And what is someone to have faith in, if not God?

Here is the main question I want to challenge you with: Do you love differently because you love God?

We should affirm the love of God by showing that we have a love with intentionality and foundation. The foundation is this: that our love is formed upon a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. And this true love is not possible without first loving God and following in His ways.

Imagine if our culture loved each other out of the clear and distinct definition of love given to us in the Gospel. Imagine if we were a people who were for the love of God. As people of God, we must love differently. Our love should affirm and point to God’s love.