Proving Your Love for God
Matthew 22:34-40 & other Scriptures
September 21, 2008
Introduction
Have you ever said something in school, maybe on the playground, and someone said, “Oh yeah? Prove it!”
And so you’ve gotta step and show them that you’re really not afraid to stick your tongue on a frozen flag pole.
I didn’t have too many episodes like that. I was usually the smallest guy in my class, so I spent most of my recesses just trying not to get beat up.
I don’t think anyone likes to be put into a corner where they have to prove what they’ve put out there with their lips.
But there are areas of life when mere talk doesn’t cut it. There are times when we have to step up and prove that what we say is really true.
And one of the key areas of life is in our love for God.
I think just about everyone in this room would probably say they love God.
And I hope that’s true.
But Scripture challenges us to “prove it.”
So how do we do that? How do we prove our love for God in such a way that tells God and others that we’re serious about loving God?
How do we avoid just being a religious bag of wind that’s quick to say they love God but has nothing in their life to show it?
That’s what I want to show you today from God’s Word.
God: We continue to look at the passage we looked at last week in our trip through the gospel of Matthew.
It’s three days before Jesus would be crucified and He’s been engaging in a number of conversations and debates up to this point.
The religious leaders are in panic mode because Jesus has shut them down time after time, in the presence of countless numbers of people in town for the largest festival of the year, Passover.
So they come to Him one more time trying to trap Him in His words.
Matthew 22:34-40 (p. 699) –
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
37 Jesus replied: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
Last week I discussed the fact that the bottom line of the Greatest Commandment to love God is that we are to love God with everything in us – heart, soul, and mind.
That loving God means not trying to compartmentalize your life into sections, with your “God” section being separated from all the others, but rather giving Him control of every aspect of your life – your work, your play, your family, your money, your dreams and ambitions, whatever.
Today I want us to look at the idea that love for God is an active love that involves our participation.
We tend to think of love as being strictly or primarily an emotion, but while there is an emotional aspect of it, love entails a whole lot more than just the emotions.
I’ll talk more about that in a bit, but I want to look at the question that’s really at the heart of all this: how do we show our love for God the way we should?
How do we prove that we really love God?
To do that, I want to look at two other passages of Scripture that really spell it out for us.
1 John 5:3 –
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.
To love God is to obey God.
A lot of people have an emotional attachment to God.
They “like” God, don’t have a negative impression of Him, they may have a real deep “love” for God on an emotional level.
Emotion is fine and good. I hope that Christians love God with their emotions. But emotion isn’t enough, according to Scripture.
Jesus says much the same thing in John 14:23-24 –
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
Jesus makes the connection between His words and the words of the Father. In other words, when you’re obeying Jesus, you’re obeying the Father.
Before I get any further I want to make sure I make something crystal clear:
You don’t earn God’s love for you by obeying Him. God’s love is not earned.
What we’re talking about is that we show our love for God by obeying Him.
It seems pretty basic, at least on the surface, but why are there people who call themselves Christians but don’t obey Him?
Why is it that there are lots of people who feel that it’s okay to say they love God and still live for themselves instead of Him?
Here are some reasons I can think of:
> Don’t recognize the benefits of obedience.
When we think of obedience, we tend to think of being restricted or put into some sort of religious strait-jacket.
But that’s really not the case at all. There are some real benefits to God’s commands.
His commands are there for our protection.
I have rules in my house. Things like –
“Clean your room before doing going anywhere.”
“Get your homework done.”
“Don’t tell what’s going to happen in the movie.” (That one risks the death penalty!)
“You can cheer for any baseball team you want, as long as it’s the Twins.”
Some rules are there just to make life easier for my wife and me.
But some rules are there for the health and protection of our kiddos.
“No leaving the house without getting permission.”
“Don’t touch the hot stove.”
“No playing in the street.”
“No setting your sisters on fire.”
“You can cheer for any baseball team you want, as long as it’s the Twins.”
My point here is that some of the rules in our house are there because we love our kids and don’t want them to be hurt.
Many of you here can tell of times when you got hurt when you were disobeying your parents, right?
Our Father in heaven has laid down commands for us to follow – and they’re there for our benefit.
I can tell you from personal experience that when I listen to Scripture, I’ve been spared a lot of heartaches and a lot of headaches.
I can also tell you from personal experience that when I’ve ignored God’s commands, I have had a lot of both.
But it’s not just avoiding heartache and headaches that make obedience worthwhile.
They’re there to allow us to enjoy life to the full because we’re living it the way God designed it to be lived in the first place.
Jesus said that He came so that we could have life to the full, and His commands are designed to help with that.
God’s commands are designed to give us wisdom.
We could go on and on about the benefits of obedience, but let’s look at some other reasons people don’t put a priority of obedience.
> They filter the level of their obedience through their own convenience.
In other words, they’ll obey as long as it doesn’t cause them to make real big changes in their lifestyle.
Or they rationalize that they’re not as bad as the next person, even if what they’re doing is directly spoken of in Scripture as sin.
Another reason some folks who call themselves Christians aren’t all that much into obedience is because of…
> Role models who speak of God but don’t show obedience in their own lives.
Whether it’s a music or movie star, or any other kind of celebrity, or just a person that is looked up to by other people, they see them mention God or spirituality but don’t see much in terms of action to back it up.
This gives their admirers permission, in their minds, to do the same thing.
And related to that, only on the other end of the spectrum is…
> Hypocrisy
When someone claims to love God but lives a life contrary to that claim, they’re a hypocrite.
We usually think of those who claim to be outspoken Christians but do things like cheat on their spouses or on their taxes, or are abusive to their spouses or deliberately lie about things.
They go to church, talk the talk, carry their Bible around, and have all the outward appearances of being a Christian, and that’s how they want to be viewed and respected.
But in reality they only like the show and don’t really love God.
Looking at these things, it’s not a real shocker that many people, including many Christians, don’t feel that obedience to God should be that much of a big deal.
But it is a big deal. God says that if you love Him you’ll obey Him. Lip-service isn’t good enough.
Here is what I want you to remember from our time together today:
God wants life-service, not lip-service.
Anybody can talk a good talk. Just listen to the news over the next 3 months as they talk about God and faith as the election draws nearer.
Listen to the music on the radio. Lots of mention of God and loving Him, but nothing in terms of actually living for Him in obedience.
I think it’s because people think of loving God like they think of loving their boyfriend or girlfriend.
They’re fine with God as long as He’s doing nice things for them, but as soon as He disappoints them or doesn’t give them what they want, they dump Him.
But real love, whether it’s love for God or a love for people doesn’t say, “What can you do for me?” It says, “What can I do for you?”
That’s a huge difference, folks.
You: So what should you do with this? Well, the answer’s really pretty simple, isn’t it? Start obeying.
Well I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news for you.
Let me start with the bad news: you won’t want to do this on your own initiative and you can’t do it on your own power.
The good news: God will help you in both of those areas.
Philippians 2:13 (LB) –
For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.
Make this your prayer. Ask God to help you want to obey Him and then to actually do it.
It’s just a fact of life that we’ll never really be obedient to God unless we want to be. And God knows this. So He wants to help you with that part of it, not just the actual doing.
When we come to the point where our obedience to the Father is done out of our love for Him, it becomes easier – and it becomes a joy.
We: If Christians really got serious about showing our love for God by obeying His commands, then not only would they understand all the great things God has in store for those who obey, but just as importantly, those who don’t yet know Jesus would see a bunch of people who aren’t content with just talking about loving God.
They’ll see that being a Christian is more than just going to church and calling yourself a Christian.
They’ll see that God works in people who love God with their lives and not just their lips.
And maybe – just maybe – they’ll consider Jesus for themselves.
