← How to Love God
Contents · 26 / 57
  1. Opening Scripture
  2. Preface
  3. How to Use This Book
  4. Study Features and Diagrams
  5. The Greatest Commandment
  6. What Does It Mean to Love God?
  7. With All Your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength
  8. Why God Is Worthy of Our Love
  9. We Love Because He First Loved Us
  10. The Gospel and the Transformation of Love
  11. Why We Do Not Naturally Love God
  12. A New Heart That Loves God
  13. Seeing the Glory of God in Christ
  14. Justification, Assurance, and Love
  15. Love, Emotion, and Obedience
  16. Is Love for God an Emotion?
  17. If You Love Me, Keep My Commandments
  18. Loving God When You Do Not Feel Love
  19. Duty, Delight, and the Formation of Holy Affections
  20. The Practices Through Which Love Grows
  21. Knowing God Through Scripture
  22. Loving God Through Prayer
  23. Worship, Praise, and the Lord's Day
  24. Repentance and the Restoration of Fellowship
  25. Obedience in Ordinary Life
  26. Loving God by Loving People
  27. Evangelism, Mission, and Love for God
  28. Loving God Through Suffering
  29. Obstacles, Counterfeits, and Spiritual Warfare
  30. Idolatry and Rival Loves
  31. Legalism, Moralism, and Religious Performance
  32. Emotionalism and the Search for Spiritual Experiences
  33. Distraction, Busyness, and Digital Formation
  34. Temptation, Spiritual Warfare, and Perseverance
  35. Growing in Mature Love
  36. Love and the Fear of God
  37. Loving God With the Mind
  38. Loving God in Community
  39. A Lifetime of Loving God
  40. The Eternal Enjoyment of God
  41. Study and Practice Resources
  42. Key Bible Passages About Loving God
  43. Frequently Asked Questions
  44. Thirty Days: Growing in Love for God
  45. Seven Days for Spiritual Coldness
  46. Why Does God Feel Distant? A Diagnostic Guide
  47. A Flexible Rule of Life
  48. Prayers for Growing in Love
  49. Small-Group Study Guide
  50. Personal Spiritual Assessment
  51. Pastoral Case Studies
  52. Glossary
  53. Recommended Resources
  54. Endnotes, Source Notes, and Bibliography
  55. Scripture Index
  56. Subject Index
  57. Final Exhortation

The Practices Through Which Love Grows

Loving God by Loving People

~3 min read

Can a person genuinely love the invisible God while remaining indifferent or hostile toward people made in his image?

Key passages

Leviticus 19:9–18; Matthew 5:43–48; Matthew 22:34–40; John 13:34–35; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 John 3:11–24; 1 John 4:7–21.

Chapter thesis

Love for God necessarily takes social form. It seeks the true good of neighbors, brothers and sisters, enemies, the poor, and the suffering through truth, mercy, justice, sacrifice, and wise boundaries.

The inseparable commandments

Jesus joins love for God and neighbor without confusing them. God remains the supreme object of worship; neighbor-love is the necessary horizontal expression of Godward love. First John makes the test sharp: hatred of a brother contradicts a claim to love God.

This prevents private spirituality from becoming self-deception. Prayer that never produces patience, generosity, forgiveness, or concern for injustice is incomplete. It also prevents activism from replacing worship. Neighbor-love is grounded in God’s character, command, image, and gospel.

Love seeks true good

Biblical love is not unconditional approval of every desire. It rejoices with truth, warns when necessary, forgives, protects, serves, and bears burdens. Because people are embodied and social, love addresses food, safety, loneliness, work, illness, oppression, and spiritual need.

The form depends on circumstance. Comforting the grieving, confronting abuse, teaching a child, reporting a crime, forgiving an insult, and refusing manipulation can all be loving. Sentiment alone cannot decide.

The local church

Jesus gives a new-commandment pattern: disciples love one another as he loved them. The church is where this becomes visible through shared worship, hospitality,

material care, correction, discipline, service, and reconciliation.

Church love is costly because the church contains real sinners. Romanticizing community leads to disappointment; consumerism leaves when preference is crossed; isolation avoids sanctification. Mature love stays truthful, seeks peace, and recognizes that severe abuse or corruption may require protection, formal action, and sometimes departure to a healthier church.

Enemies and boundaries

Jesus commands prayer and goodness toward enemies, reflecting the Father’s generosity. Enemy-love rejects vengeance and refuses to dehumanize. It does not require trusting an untrustworthy person, remaining in danger, or preventing lawful justice. Forgiveness releases personal vengeance to God; reconciliation ordinarily requires truth, repentance, and rebuilt trust.

Boundaries can serve love when they prevent enabling, protect the vulnerable, and clarify responsibility. They become loveless when used to punish, control, or avoid every inconvenience.

Voice from the church: Francis Schaeffer

Schaeffer called observable love among Christians a final apologetic before the watching world. The point is not that love makes doctrine unnecessary, but that truth claims are contradicted when Christian relationships display contempt. The biblical standard remains Christ’s self-giving and truthful love, not mere institutional unity.

Important distinction

Forgiveness, reconciliation, and trust are related but distinct. A believer may relinquish vengeance while reconciliation remains impossible because the offender denies harm or continues danger. Trust is rebuilt through truth and reliable fruit.

Chapter summary

Love for God becomes visible in the true good of people. It combines compassion and truth, mercy and justice, forgiveness and wisdom, local-church commitment and protection of the vulnerable.

Reflect and discuss

  1. Which relationship most exposes the limits of your claimed love?

  2. Are you confusing love with approval, forgiveness with trust, or boundaries with punishment?

  3. What need in your church or neighborhood can you meet concretely?

Practice for this week

Choose one act from each category: encouragement, practical service, prayer for an enemy, and repair of a strained relationship where safe and appropriate.

Prayer

God of love, forgive the distance between my words about you and my treatment of people. Make me truthful, patient, courageous, generous, and wise. Teach your church to display the self-giving love of Christ. Amen.