How Do We Show That We Love God

It is easy to say that we love God; it is another thing altogether to live that love openly and courageously amid our daily realities. Jesus calls on us to show that love to our families, friends, neighbors, known and unknown, the poor and forgotten among us, and even those who, for whatever reasons, injure us in any way, by keeping his word. “Whoever loves me will keep my word…” (John 14: 23). The word we receive from Jesus, that comes from the Father, has the power to heal us and to cleanse us. If we receive and willingly keep God’s word, he can use us as instruments of his love and his grace in this often chaotic world.

Psalm 15 gives us a short, concise reflection on what keeping the word of God looks like. The question the psalmist is dealing with is: “Who are those who will be welcomed into the kingdom of God?” The answers given are as precise and clear as can be. “He who walks without fault;/ he who acts with justice/ and speaks the truth from his heart;/ he who does not slander with his tongue;/ he who does no wrong to his brother,/ who casts no slur on his neighbor,/ who honors those who fear the Lord;/ who keeps his pledge, come what may;/ who takes no interest on a loan/ and accepts no bribes against the innocent.” This is what “keeping God’s word” looks like in real terms.

These are the actions that arise from one who has come to know and to love God. These are the behaviors that show God’s love to the world. Those who love God make a place for God in their hearts, a space to be filled by God. God, who is the fullness of love itself, willingly enters the hearts of those who love him, and he fills them to overflowing. Love begets love. This love shows itself in self-giving. It flows outward from the depths of the heart in service and care for the other, no matter the cost. When we come to love God with our whole hearts, minds, and strength, we will begin to “clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We will bear with one another and forgive one another if we have grievances with one another, as the Lord forgives us. Over all these virtues we will put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3: 12-14). This is worthy of much thought and prayer.

Who among us can say that we live these virtues “perfectly”? But if we come to know them and to see the wisdom behind them in our hearts and our minds, we can also develop the deep desire to do the hard work that is necessary to build these habits into our lives, and to live in accord with them, no matter what comes. This is the work that the Word of God has set before each one of us. We are not called upon to simply hear the word of God, but to live it. Jesus, the living Word of God, tells us: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21).

When we look around us, we see that the world is burdened by suffering. We recognize this suffering in our own lives as well as in the larger world. The Love of God is the only force that can address and heal this suffering. The Father sent his Word into the world to free it from sin and death. That divine work has been accomplished by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has promised that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead at the end of time. At that time, he will call all who have kept his word into that eternal kingdom that he has prepared for them from before the beginning of time.

In the meantime, he has charged his followers to keep his living, healing, and forgiving word alive today. Each heart that hears the word of God and does it will be filled with the unbounded love of God in the form of the particular graces that will be needed in every circumstance or situation we encounter in our days. This is how we show that we love God: by keeping his word to love all others as he loved us. Imagine what this world might be like if all of God’s people were showing the height and the depth, the width and the breadth of God’s love by keeping his word in all circumstances, times, and places.