How can you love God more?

Quick Answer: How can you love God more? We’ve all heard we need to love God more and prove our love for Him. Some of us have even heard that we are to love God more than our own families! But this concept is actually absent from the New Testament. Scripture never encourages a new-hearted believer to love God more, because we already love Him to the utmost (1 John 3:23; Romans 6:17; Ephesians 6:24). Instead, the Bible encourages believers to grow in God’s love for them (Ephesians 3:19).

Diving Deeper: Popular Christian theology teaches we need to love God more. However, this is not Biblical. Under the Law, people were encouraged to love God with all of their hearts, souls, minds, and strength (Mark 12:30). In other words, they were required to love God perfectly. The point of this command was for people to realize they could not love God perfectly under the Law. God would have to provide a new way of loving Him, one where He deposits His love in our hearts and inspires us from within to love Him and others.

Under the new covenant, loving God is believing in Jesus and loving one another (1 John 3:23; 5:4). The beautiful reality of this new setup is that God has it rigged. When we believe in Jesus, we are given a new heart and a new spirit, and we are thereby empowered to love God and other people (1 John 3:14; Galatians 6:10). Loving God is actually a perpetual state of being for the believer.

Scripture says our love for God is an undying love, because we have become obedient from the heart (Ephesians 6:24, Romans 6:17). So, we don’t need to try to love God more. We love Him with an undying love, and we can rest in this reality. Instead, we can wake up every day and grow in our understanding of His great love for us (Ephesians 3:19).

Let’s Make It a Conversation!
1. Have you heard the “you need to love God more” message? What reaction did it stir in you? Was the effect lasting?
2. React to this statement: Every believer loves God with an undying love.
3. React to this statement: Trying to love God more can distract us from His great love for us.