Kingdom Practice (3)

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?” John 21.15

How do we know?
Peter was clearly unnerved by Jesus’ question. He was still living in the shame of having denied the Lord and the mystery of having seen Him alive from the dead. Now Jesus pressed the point, focusing Peter on the question of where his true treasure lay.

“Do you love Me?”, He asked the fisherman, three times.

What if God were to ask y0u that question? And what if, when you answered like Peter, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you”, suppose God were to respond, “Well, how do I know?” How do we know when we are loving God? What does that look like? How should we prepare for it? How can we keep from missing opportunities to love God, so that both He and we know that our love is genuine and true?

If we don’t know what loving God involves, or how we should do it, how will this ever become the true treasure of our hearts and the consistent practice of our lives in the Kingdom of God?

Indicators of love for God
Here I want to suggest eight indicators that will say to us and God that we truly love Him. By growing, enjoying, and serving the Lord in each of these ways, we may reach increasing assurance that our love for God is genuine. I will simply mention these in fairly rapid succession.

First, we know that we love God when we love His presence. The psalmist tells us that in the presence of God we may know fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16.11). The Apostle Paul urges us to seek the presence and glory of God, for here is where we will most surely be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18). We love God when we love His presence and resort there often.

We also love God when we love His Word – reading, meditating, studying in the Word, hiding it in our hearts and sharing it eagerly with others (Col. 3.16), saying with Jeremiah that His Word is the joy of our hearts (Jer. 15.16).

We love God when we love His salvation, and when we work hard to lay hold on and unpack that glorious gift to increasing fullness in our everyday lives (Phil. 2.12; Ps. 116.13).

When we love God’s creation, which He loves (Jn. 3.16), we are also loving the Lord. By giving ourselves to the study and enjoyment of creation, and to cultivating and conserving it so as to bring out the glory of God to others, we are demonstrating true love for our Father, Who owns it all (Ps. 111.2; Ps. 115.16; Ps. 8.6; Deut. 22.6, 7; Hab. 2.14; Ps. 24.1).

We may also be seen to love God when we love His works – creation, providence, and redemption – and when we talk about these eagerly and often, boasting of the greatness of our God and of His love, and when we eagerly take up the work He has appointed for us within His Kingdom.

We love God as we look forward to His appearing in the last days to take us home to Himself in glory. All who love the Lord Jesus pray, “Maranatha!” – “Come, Lord,” and bring us to Your eternal glory.

Further, we love God when we love bringing His praises to others, and to the generations that will succeed us (Ps. 45.17). As evidence of our love for God, we delight in raising our children unto the Lord, leading others to the Lord, doing the work of making disciples, and contributing to the building-up of the Body of Christ.

Finally, we love the Lord when, at the same time we love Him, we fear Him as we should. As we’ve seen, the fear of God and love of God are two sides of the same coin, the locus of our greatest pleasure as those who have made the Kingdom turn.

Grow in love
There is always room for us to grow in love for God. Our goal is to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we will prove that our greatest passion is for God when we work to practice love for Him in the ways I have outlined above.

Work hard to grow in love for God in all these ways. Find your greatest pleasure in life in increasing love for God. And when you see these eight indicators at work in your life, and growing, you can have confidence that you are loving God as the highest expression of your citizenship in His Kingdom.

Next steps: Are you growing in love for God in all these ways? Share the results of your self-evaluation with some Christian friends. Ask for their prayers to help you grow in love for God.

T. M. Moore

This week’s study, Kingdom Practice, is the final installment of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

Are you checking the daily Scriptorium column? T. M. has just begun a new series on the book of Revelation. This week’s seven-part introduction to Revelation will give way to daily chapter-by-chapter studies, beginning next week.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.