What does it mean to love God?

When a lawyer asked Jesus to name the greatest commandment, He did not hesitate. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38). Of all the things God asks of us, this comes first, and everything else hangs upon it. Jesus was quoting words spoken long before to Israel: "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5). To love God, then, is not one item on a long list of religious duties. It is the center from which a whole life is meant to grow.

But notice where this love begins. We do not generate it on our own, summoning affection for a distant deity by force of will. "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). God moved toward us before we ever turned toward Him. He formed us, sustains every breath we take, and gave His own Son for our sake. Our love is the answer, not the opening line. This is why loving God feels less like climbing a ladder and more like coming home. The more clearly you see how He has loved you, the more naturally your heart turns back to Him in gratitude, trust, and devotion. Love that starts with God's initiative carries a freedom in it that fear and mere obligation never can.

Yet love for God is never only a feeling. Jesus made the connection between love and life unmistakable: "If ye love me, keep my commandments" (John 14:15). Love proves itself in obedience, in the daily choices that show whom we truly belong to. This is not a cold, fearful rule-keeping meant to earn God's favor. The apostle John is careful here: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). When love is the root, obedience becomes the fruit. We forgive because we have been forgiven; we tell the truth, serve the unnoticed, and turn from sin not to win something but because our hearts have been won. Where there is genuine love for God, it will show. It always takes shape in how we live.

Consider, too, the fullness of the command. As Jesus draws it out, He calls for love with heart, soul, mind, and strength — every part of who we are. Loving Him with the heart means our deepest affections are set on Him. Loving Him with the soul means we entrust to Him our very life, holding nothing back. Loving Him with the mind means we think rightly about Him, treasuring His word and letting it shape how we see everything else. Loving Him with the strength means our hands and our hours, our work and our worship, are offered to Him. This is whole-person love. God does not ask for a slice of our Sundays; He asks for all of us. And it is precisely this undivided heart that finds Him most fully — for those who seek Him with their whole desire discover that He is there to be found.

Such love is not perfected in a moment; it deepens over a lifetime of staying near. Jesus gave a tender promise to those who love Him: "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him" (John 14:23). The love you offer God is met not by a fond reply from a distance, but by God making His very home in you. So love grows the way any love grows — through nearness, through honest conversation in prayer, through dwelling in His word, through shared life with His people, through obedience tested in ordinary days. There will be seasons when your love feels strong and seasons when it feels faint. In both, the call is the same: come back to the One who loved you first, and give Him your heart again. To love God is the highest purpose for which you were made, and the deepest joy you will ever know — not a burden laid upon you, but the homecoming your soul was created for.