“This Is What the Love of God Means”

“This Is What the Love of God Means”

“This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.”—1 JOHN 5:3.

DO YOU love God? If you have come into a dedicated relationship with Jehovah God, your answer surely is an emphatic yes—and rightly so! It is only natural for us to love Jehovah. Our love for God is really in response to his love for us. The Bible puts it this way: “As for us, we love, because he [Jehovah] first loved us.”—1 John 4:19.

Jehovah has taken the initiative to express his love for us. He provides us with a beautiful earthly home. He cares for our physical and material needs. (Matthew 5:43-48) More important, he looks after our spiritual needs. He gives us his Word, the Bible. In addition, he invites us to pray to him with the assurance that he will hear us and will give us his holy spirit to help us. (Psalm 65:2; Luke 11:13) Above all, he sent his most precious Son to be our Ransomer so that we might be delivered from sin and death. What great love Jehovah has shown to us!—John 3:16; Romans 5:8.

Jehovah wants us to benefit from his love forever. Whether we will or not, however, is really up to us. God’s Word admonishes us: “Keep yourselves in God’s love . . . with everlasting life in view.” (Jude 21) The phrase “keep yourselves” suggests that to remain in God’s love, action on our part is required. We need to respond to his love in concrete ways. An important question for us to consider, then, is this, ‘How can I demonstrate my love for God?’ The answer is found in the inspired words of the apostle John: “This is what the love of God means, that we observe his commandments; and yet his commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) We do well to examine carefully the meaning of these words, for we want to show our God just how much we love him.