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Loving God translates to loving others
A Christian has two categories of people in his life to show love to; he has to love God and his fellow human beings. Apart from the Bible teaching us to love others, normally, we are naturally inclined to love our relatives such as mothers, fathers, children, etc., and our love for them turns out to be very strong. For example, parents, both Christian and unbelieving parents, tend to love their children. Now is there any relationship between loving God and loving others?
From a biblical point of view, loving God is the foundation of loving others. Jesus Christ himself stated that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt 22:37-39). This shows that the two commandments are interconnected and inseparable. In simple terms, we cannot truly love God without loving others, and we cannot truly love others without loving God first. This is because loving others is a way of expressing our love for God, as we serve and sacrifice for them as we would for God.
Take Mother Teresa as an example. She devoted her life to serving the poorest of the poor in India. This is because she saw her work as a way of serving God and her love for God was reflected in her love for others. She once said, “I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.” For Mother Teresa, loving God and loving others were inseparable and her life was a testament to the power of this relationship.
The conflict between loving God and loving others
Normally, loving God, and demonstrating our love for Him in obedience to His word does not seem to be much of a problem. The problem comes when there is a conflict between the interest of God and the interest of the other persons we love, and we are left to choose between the interest of God and that of man. This choice would decide which of the two we love most, God or man. In life, sometimes, it happens that we have to decide whether to do something to please God but displease man or to do something to please man but displease God. We have to make a choice sometimes.
If we choose to please God to displease man, then we love God more than man, but if we choose to please man to displease God, then we love man more than God. You decide! If you value your relationship with God and the Christian faith, you choose to love God more than others. However, if you value your relations with others more, you choose to love man more than God.
The Scriptures – the book of faith that guides us to make the right choices – teaches that God deserves and demands that we show Him greater love than the love we have for others such as our fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, friends, etc. For this reason, Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. Also, He said in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
How we show that we love others more than God
The Bible has many perfect examples of a situation where we love others more than God. Long ago, after God had made everything, He created Adam. God planted a garden full of fruit-bearing trees and animals around a great river in a place called Eden. In the middle of the garden, God put two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. God took Adam and put him in the garden and He commanded him that he should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of God and evil (Ge 2:13-17).
Later, God created Eve to be with Adam. Now Adam kept God’s word until one day, his wife, Eve, made him disobey. It happened that the devil deceived Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, and after having eaten it, she took some and brought it to Adam. Then Adam listened to his wife, took the forbidden fruit, and ate it to disobey God’s word.
God was much displeased and He made it clear to Adam that he, Adam, had chosen his wife over Him. God said to Adam, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;” (Genesis 3:17 ESV)
Later on in history, King Solomon did a similar thing. He was misled by his wives to make idols and high places where his pagan wives could worship and give offerings to gods. King Solomon himself was misled to participate in this idolatry. This action of his was a direct violation of the words of God, the Ten Commandments, and God was very displeased with him.
Bible readers who have carefully read through John 14:15 understand that the actions of Adam and Solomon indicate that they loved their wives more than God for they listened to their wives to disobey the command of God. Similarly, if Christians of today obey or listen to our families, friends, bosses, acquaintances, etc. to disobey God, then we love them more than God. These are a few examples of how some Christians show love to others more than God.
- Resorting to lying to protect or cover others such as our loved ones, mother, father, siblings, etc.
- Bearing false witness to save, protect, or cover others.
- Stealing from others, the company, or the government so that you can cater for your family.
- Being ashamed of Christ in the midst of your family, friends, neighbors, etc.
The consequences of loving others more than God
First of all, let’s get something clear, the only people who know God and love Him are inevitably Christians. No one outside Christ Jesus can love God. Concerning the consequence of loving others more than God, we are looking at the situation where a Christian shows love for others more than God.
Loving others so much to disobey God is still a sin just like the sin we commit out of selfishness and God would apportion punishment to us according to what the gravity of the sin deserves. How would God let you get away with it if you lie or bear false witness just to cover someone you love? It is no excuse to disobey God because we want to please, save, cover, or assist others – this is tantamount to loving others more than God.
Loving others more than God can ruin our relationship with God. King Solomon ruined his relationship with God when he loved his wives so much that he built idols and turned idolatrous because of them. In the same way, as Christians we ruin our relationship with God if we are ashamed of Christ, deny Christ, and engage in idolatrous and ritualistic practices for the sake of our love for family, friends, tribe, customs, culture, and traditions.
Loving others more than God makes you unworthy – unworthy of God’s personality, presence, blessings, salvation, and being His heir. And you are also not worthy to call Him your God. God does not settle for cheap love. If you want to remain in Him and continuously enjoy the blessings He has to offer, then make it a point to love Him more than anything. It is written, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Mt 10:37
Also, Jesus does not want a disciple who loves God less. Hence He said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:26)
Conclusion
God does not accept any cheap love; it is either you put Him first or you back out of following Him – this is the discipleship terms and conditions. Many are those who profess to be Christians, but in the eyes of God, they are not reckoned as children of God because they love superstars, their parents, their wives, their husbands, their friends, etc. more than God.