On loving God

Apr 25, 2025

Growing in Christ - Tan Kong Beng

This season of Good Friday and Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, celebrations allow us, as the disciples of Jesus Christ, to commemorate and to bring to our remembrance once again the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We do not fully know and experience the depths and the unbounded love of God in the voluntary sacrifice of Jesus who is the Christ, the holy and righteous God-man who is without sin and who, at one-moment in time at His crucifixion, became sin for us, to redeem by His blood we who are sinful human beings.

What kind of love is this? The God who is love (I John 4:8,16), the loving Triune Godhead who loves outside of Himself His creation (spiritual and our material world) and especially, we who bear His image and likeness.

What is this love? The Christian author C.S. Lewis speaks of the four loves – Agáp? (unconditional “God” love; an inspite of love), Philía (friendship love; a love among companion friends), Éros (romantic love; sexual love between a man and a woman), and Storg? (empathy bond; like a love between a parent and a child) - in his book The Four Loves (1960) and helps us to explore the nature of love from a Christian and Western philosophical perspective.

Hence, God’s love is an inspite-of-love for us who were once so far away from Him because of sin in us and it was only because of Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection has brought us near to God, into fellowship with Him once again (Ephesians 2:13).

This is God’s love for us, concretely manifested in the loving sacrifice of His Son, the second Person of our trinitarian God, who voluntarily took on flesh, dwelt amongst us and yet did not sin, and gave His life willingly on the cross (Philippians 2: 6-8) to redeem us so that we might now live in God through the daily companionship of the Holy Spirit who is our advocate teaching us all things, reminding us of everything that Jesus has said to us and guiding us into all truth (John 14: 26; 16: 7-15).

How then do we respond in our own frail humanity to God’s gracious and abundant love for us, His erring creatures?

We are reminded that Peter the Apostle was once asked three times by our Lord Christ, “Do you love me?” (John 21: 15-17). Twice Jesus used the agáp? love word but Peter’s response in the first two occasions was “You know that I philéo love you”. So, the third time our Lord used the philéo love word of Peter instead of his agáp? love word.

Just as it was for Peter, our Lord accepts our love for Him at this moment in time. I do believe that Peter surely grew in his love for the Lord and in time his philéo love became an agáp? love only because it was the Spirit of God in him who graciously gave him God’s agáp? love. So too, our love for God will surely grow in time.

Perhaps it would be instructive for us to turn to the Lord’s advice on how we are to love God. “If you love Me obey My commandments.” (John 14:15, NLT). Here is one directive He gives to us that in loving Him we begin by obeying His commandments.

We can know his commandments by attending to the whole counsel of God’s Word, the Holy Scriptures, that He has given to us. Following the Monastic Fathers in lectio divina (divine reading), we spend time in God’s Word with readingstudying, meditating-reflecting, praying and contemplating the Word of God. As we spend time with God’s Word may the Holy Spirit enlighten us and empower us to obey Him daily in order that we may live lives of obedience to His Word, and grow in our love, in God and for God.

The second advice Jesus gives to us is to remain in His love. We can do this by becoming His friends. As his friends He tells us that we are to do all that He commands (John 15:9, 14). Friendship with Jesus is obeying His commands and thus remain in His love. What is His command? It is that we love one another (John 15: 17).

However, if truly we have not been able to do this consistently in our daily lives, may the Lord forgive us for not wholeheartedly obeying Him in loving one another. Jesus calls us to love one another so that “Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are My disciples.” (John 13:35, NLT). Thus, loving one another not only shows to others that we are His disciples but it also bears witness that we belong to Christ.

Finally, let us recall that a Pharisee once asked Jesus about the greatest commandment. Jesus’ reply to him was that “You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’. The entire law and the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40, NLT).

May the Lord help us to love Him more deeply each day with our whole being and may we love our neighbour as ourselves by the Holy Spirit’s help. Loving God must be seen in loving our neighbour as we love ourselves. And who is my neighbour? (cf. The parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel 10:29-37).

After many years in Christian service, Tan Kong Beng is seeking a new season of vocation and life lived in God’s ways. He worships and serves in Subang Jaya Gospel Centre