Love for God is the wholehearted devotion, affection, and loyalty that God’s people are commanded to give to Him alone.
It is the first and greatest commandment: to love the Lord with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength.
True love for God flows from His prior love for us and is expressed in obedience, worship, trust, and delight in Him.
It is the defining mark of those who belong to Him and the fountain from which love for others flows.
From the Shema onward, Scripture places the love of God at the center of the life of faith. Moses charged Israel to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, and might. The psalmists express this love in longing, praise, and trust. Jesus confirmed that this commandment is the greatest of all and joined it inseparably to the love of neighbor. The apostles teach that we love God because He first loved us, and that love for God is shown in keeping His commandments. Love for God is not a mere feeling; it is a settled commitment of the whole person — mind, will, affections, and actions — directed toward the One who is supremely worthy. It is both a duty commanded and a gift enabled by the Spirit, who pours the love of God into our hearts.
- Love for God is the first and greatest commandment; all other obligations hang upon it.
- It engages the whole person: heart, soul, mind, and strength — nothing is held back.
- We love because He first loved us; our love is a response to His initiating grace.
- Genuine love for God expresses itself in obedience; if we love Him, we will keep His commandments.
- Love for God and love for neighbor are inseparable; the second flows from the first.
- This love is cultivated through the Word, prayer, worship, and the work of the Spirit.
- Competing loves — for the world, self, or idols — threaten and diminish true love for God.
- Wholehearted – Involves the entire person without reservation or divided loyalty.
- Responsive – Flows from the knowledge and experience of God’s love for us in Christ.
- Obedient – Demonstrated by keeping God’s commandments and walking in His ways.
- Exclusive – Directed to the one true God alone; refuses rivals and idols.
- Affective and Volitional – Includes both genuine affection and deliberate commitment of the will.
- Fruitful – Produces love for others, joy in worship, and perseverance in trials.
- Lifelong – Grows over time as we know God more deeply and are transformed by His Spirit.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-5 – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
- Matthew 22:37-38 – “And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.’”
- Mark 12:29-30 – Jesus quotes the Shema and the command to love God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength.
- John 14:15, 21, 23 – “If you love me, you will keep my commandments… Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me… If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
- 1 John 4:19 – “We love because he first loved us.”
- 1 John 5:3 – “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.”
- 1 John 2:15 – “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
- Romans 8:28 – “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
- Psalm 18:1 – “I love you, O Lord, my strength.”
- Psalm 31:23 – “Love the Lord, all you his saints!”
- Psalm 73:25-26 – “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
- Joshua 22:5 – “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
- Deuteronomy 10:12 – “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
- 1 Corinthians 16:22 – “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”
- Romans 5:5 – “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Love for God is the first calling of every human heart and the defining mark of those who know Him. It is commanded, yet it is also created — awakened by the discovery that He first loved us and gave His Son for us. This love is not content with partial devotion; it seeks God with everything we are. It listens to His Word, keeps His commandments, rejects competing loyalties, and finds its deepest joy in Him. When love for God grows cold, the whole of life loses its center. When it is rekindled, obedience becomes gladness, worship becomes delight, and love for others flows naturally. The greatest commandment remains the greatest invitation: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. He is worthy of nothing less.
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