09/18/2024
What Kind of Love Do You Have For God?
In Sunday’s message about Job, I talked about how important relationship is when it comes to getting answers to our questions about God. The question that Job is really being tested on is this: can he love God for who God is—or does he only love God for what God can do for him?
It got me thinking about the various kinds of love.
1. There is the love we offer because I get something positive in return. This is a relatively selfish and transactional kind of love.
2. There is the love I offer because I enjoy our time together; because you are funny, interesting, insightful. I am even pleased when good things happen to you—especially when I am part of those good things or when those good things make you more generous or affectionate toward me. This is slightly better, at least the one I love matters a little more, even it is still a bit self-serving.
3. And finally, there is the love I have for you simply because of who you are. I love you because are my child, you are my spouse, my parent, my church, my country. This is the kind of love of which God is worthy. This is the kind of all-encompassing love that God brought us into this world to share and enjoy with Him.
At one point, Job’s wife tells him to curse God and die. His friends tell him to just admit that you’re a sinner and God is just in punishing you. But Job has too much integrity and too much faithfulness to do either. In the end, Job sticks with God, learning first hand what it means to be loved for who he is and what it means to love God for who God is. In that sense, it is a book that ends more or less happily ever after.
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