“No other outward thing out to be loved, according to the reckoning of truth, except eternity and the eternal will, which is inspired and quickened by the Eternal, Wonderful, Ineffable, Invisible, Incomprehensible, Who fills all things and passes beyond all things, Who is present and yet eludes our grasp...Thus it is perilous to dwell among deceptions and deceits, and not to see the truths you ought to love...”
Columbanus, Sermon III

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Colossians 3:2

Loving it all
Here’s a New Year’s challenge for you: Pay more attention, and be more careful about how you use the word, “love” in the year to come.

A kind of “Gresham’s Law” of vocabulary has diminished our appreciation of the word “love.” We are people who “love” everything. We love Christmas, love the home team, love nachos, love this or that rock group or film star, and, oh yes, we love our spouses and even God. If “love” describes our appreciation of so many fleeting and flimsy things, what does it mean for us to “love” God?

Columbanus says we should only love God and “the truths you ought to love.” Of course, he would include in the command to love God loving our neighbor as an expression of our love for God. However, he would have insisted on the first great commandment as the guiding one, and the second as consequential. Beyond that, Columbanus would have been very measured in the way he used that word, and so should we.

If we love God, we will love His truth, His Word, His presence and glory, His power at work within us to will and do of His good pleasure, His fruit and gifts borne in and exercised through us, His Church, His salvation, and His Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy. If we love God we will love – truly love – the things we ought to love, and we’ll find some other way of expressing our appreciation for our favorite cuisine or fashion.

We ought to love the things we ought to love, and we ought to use or enjoy the other things in our lives in a way appropriate to their purpose in helping us to love God and our neighbors. When we lavish the word “love” on all the things we use and enjoy, we diminish the value of that word for helping us to know how to relate to those things we really ought to love.

But the things we ought to love somehow don’t get the attention they should. Meanwhile, the things we glibly say we “love” tend to garner most of our time and to attract most of our interest and affection. Perhaps we really do “love” the things of this life more than God Himself and the truths we ought to love? But to what end? The things of this life are gone with the moment, gone with the consuming, gone before we know it, and then we’re off in quest of the next fleeting thing to “love.”

Watch how you use that word in the year to come. Make sure that you love - really love - only what you should, and that you are grateful to the One you love for all the other good things He brings into your life. Let the “outward things” of our lives not be regarded as objects to love, but gifts and resources to use in serving God and cues for us to praise the One Who alone deserves the love of our entire hearts, minds, and strength. Let us be grateful and give thanks for the many good gifts our heavenly Father provides, but let us reserve our love for Him and for our neighbor.

Love God more in the coming year, and you’ll appreciate everything better, and show the joy of that gratitude in all your words and deeds.

Have a blessed New Year!

Next steps

Take this little test: Keep track of how many different times you hear someone use the word “love” over the next several days. Each time you hear someone use this word, stop them – winsomely, cheerily – and say the following: “I notice you used the word ‘love’ to express how you feel about this. What do you mean by that?” Be sure to catch yourself using this term in a profligate manner as well. Resolve not to diminish the idea of “love” by throwing it around in a casual or mindless manner.

For more insight to what it means to love God, order Chuck Colson’s book Loving God, from our online store. You might also enjoy the article, “Which God?” by S. M. Hutchens.

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