How do you love God?

[seaglass27]

Now obviously all Christians would say they love God. I mean, He made us and He died for us! But it seems extremely hard to actually love Him. We can't put a face on Him and He seems incredibly impersonal sometimes. And what does it actually feel like to love Him? Is it a physical feeling or an emotional feeling or a spiritual experience or what? Does not feeling like you love God mean you're not a Christian? This is something I have wondered (worried?) about for months now...

[Cognitive Gear]

There's really only one way I know to answer this question. (And it's something that I continually work on myself.)

Matthew 25:31-45

31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not [e]take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

[seaglass27]

Thanks for the reply but I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say to me. Could you make it clearer for me, please?

[Cognitive Gear]

Thanks for the reply but I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say to me. Could you make it clearer for me, please?

Essentially, as I understand it, we show our love for God my showing love to our fellow man. When you show love and help that homeless guy get some breakfast, you are also showing love to God.

Basically, love is not a warm fuzzy feeling we get when we think about God, but rather is a set of actions. So you may never feel like you love God, but you should practice it anyways (by loving your neighbor, and even your enemies).

[seaglass27]

So if I don't feel like loving that "homeless guy" does that mean I'm not loving God? What are the implications of that?

[TopazRaven]

As Christians we are called to love God with all our hearts and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Easier said then done I know, but kindness and love must even be extended towards those we consider an enemy or don't like. Even to complete strangers. This is something I struggle with every day myself. Sometimes there are just people in this world I do not like and perhaps never will like. There are some people who make me feel sick to my stomach. In the end I try not to wish them ill and remember that it is only God who may judge and for anyone who does wrong to someone else on this earth, should they not repent and mean it, the Lord will see justice done. Because we can not actually literally see or speak to God, the feelings of love for Him probably won't feel the same as you would feel for say a family member or spouse. What I think Cog is trying to say is that by loving others you are loving God. Through them you are showing God what He means to you.

If you see someone in need and you are capable of helping them then you ought to do it. Even if someone didn't believe in God I still hope they'd do this. To hate and not care for others is going against everything God has taught us in my opinion. As stated above, I obviously have my moments. I can be a really mean person at times, especially to people I actually do care about. So yeah, I have a lot of work to do. So in a way, yes, not caring about that homeless guy is showing disrespect to God and a lack of care for human life in my opinion. No offense meant to you, but none the less.

Meanwhile it's about 1:14 in the morning here and I am very tired. Hopefully this all made sense and isn't just random rambling.

[seaglass27]

Thank you very much for taking the time to write all of that. But let's say that someone doesn't love God. Are they not a Christian then?

[Atria35]

We can't judge who is and isn't a Christian. We can't know what's in their hearts, and we can't know the judgement of God. We can say that someone who doesn't 'love God', i.e. takes care of/cares for their fellow man, isn't following the Word of God. Yet we're all fallible- that's what makes us human, and therefore we have no right to say that they're not Christian, because all of us fail at following the Word of God at some point.

[seaglass27]

Well, thank you to everyone for their replies. I am still a little confused but it is much clearer to me now.

[TopazRaven]

No problem. What are you still confused about then? It all seems pretty straight forward to me, but this is something I've been thinking about for awhile so perhaps that is why. As for your question I'll more or less just mirror what Atria said. Wither someone is a Christian or not isn't our right to decide. Only God can see into their hearts and know their true intentions. Though I will admit that if someone claims to be a Christian but doesn't have any postive feelings towards God then that seems like a bit of an oxymoron to me.

[TheMewster]

So we can't judge whether someone us a Christian eh?

Now I know what I need to work on. Thanks and God bless.

[Furen]

So we can't judge whether someone us a Christian eh?

Correct, because we don't truly know where their heart lies.

I for example, when people judge me, they think I love video games more than anything else as that's just what people think, when really, yes I like them, but I don't play games much any more, sure I'll still do the odd day where it's non stop, and often a few hours here and there, but I like much more to be in fellowship with other Christians around me.

[TheMewster]

I think I heard in 1 John that we love God by keeping His commandments.