We are created to love God, as well as to love others. Loving God means cultivating (but not creating) a relationship with God by walking with, working with, and worshipping God.

Created to Care, Created to Love

This post marks the fourth post in a series inspired by Spirit & Truth Publishing’s five-lesson unit on environmental stewardship called Learning Together: Created to Care. I specifically say “inspired by” because this blog series is not about environmental stewardship but about other things we are created to do. So far, our series includes “Created to Care, Created to Work,” “Created in God’s Image (Pride Month),” and “Created to Love.”

This series especially focuses on what God has created us to do. This doesn’t mean that our purpose is found solely in our actions. Everything here is founded upon the truth that God created us to be loved, and we are all God’s beloved image-bearers. Sometimes, we just need to rest in that truth. But, humans are not designed to just sit still all the time. By our very nature, we act, we do. The previous post focused on God creating us to love others. Today my focus is on loving God.

What Is Love?

When I attempted to define love previously (first in a post on 1 Corinthians 13 which I quoted in the last post), I wrote:

Love is the inclination, intent, and action for the improvement (increase in shalom) of the recipient of that love.

I think that’s true (if clunky), but I realized as I was reflecting on this post on loving God, that I was missing something important: love is a relationship, or perhaps better stated, love is a quality of a relationship. A relationship is simply a connection between two or more objects/events/things. When speaking of love, this is two or more persons. Love, then, is the quality of a relationship that works for the good of the beloved as well as the enjoyment of this relationship (with an emphasis on joy).

God’s Gift of Love

Within the grand scope of the universe, humans are tiny and have little power. I don’t believe, as many say, that this means we are insignificant. Our significance comes from our relationships with God and others. It is less that we are like ants and more that we are like newborn infants. An infant is small and certainly almost powerless. But we know that infants are far from insignificant.

Our minute stature in this regard does mean that—on our own—we cannot create a relationship with the almighty Creator of this universe. If God did not wish to have a relationship with us (collectively and individually), then there would be no relationship. Joyfully, that is not the case. God has created us to be in a loving relationship with God. God’s gift of grace is a loving relationship that God establishes and maintains with us. And in this relationship, God intends and works for the best for us: a relationship that brings God joy!

This relationship is not one we deserve, and it is not one we can destroy. Nothing can separate us from the love of God—that is, nothing can destroy our relationship with God. But that doesn’t mean that we can or should remain passive. No, we should engage, and enjoy, this relationship: we should love God back.

What Does It Mean to Love God?

In our loving relationships with others, we can’t just enjoy warm, fuzzy feelings. We need to act to make their lives better. But it’s impossible for us to make God’s life better in concrete terms. God is all-sufficient and needs nothing. What we can indeed do is to give God joy. How? We can walk with God, work with God, and worship God.

Walk with God

We walk with God by following God’s instructions as we live our lives (Psalm 119:1-5, John 14:21-24). It’s hard to be in a healthy relationship with someone if you keep walking away from them. While obedience is absolutely the right word here, the term can focus on legalism in which obeying brings rewards, while disobeying leads to punishment. That is not the language of a loving relationship—“walking with God” is. When we walk away (as we so often do), not only does God pursue us, but the resolution is to turn back around, to repent.

Work with God

Sure, walking with God means to follow God’s instructions, God’s way. But what is that? What does, indeed, God want us to do?

[God] has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

God’s work is to care for others: to spread shalom (God’s peace) and work for justice. So, when we also love our neighbors as ourselves, including caring for the creation that sustains us all, we are working beside God.

Worship God

In addition to, and as a part of, living as God calls us to do, we love God through worship. This is obvious. The first and biggest formational event that your congregation puts on is congregational worship. “Going to church” usually means going to a worship service. But what is worship?

That’s a question I’ve spent a lot of time pondering. My first foray into faith formation publishing was a self-written curriculum called Spirit & Truth: Teaching Kids the Heart of Worship, which teaches about worship, liturgy, and church festivals. To teach about worship meant I had to come up with a succinct definition. That was surprisingly hard. There are many different Hebrew and Greek words translated “worship” in our English Bibles. The most basic definition I came up with is:

Worship includes everything we do to show God our love (for what God has done for us).

I made it broad on purpose. I didn’t want to limit my definition to congregation worship. Worship can look, sound, smell, taste, and feel many different ways. So, worship is, basically, how we follow the greatest commandment: loving God with our whole selves. We worship in thought, word, and action, alone and together, with singing, sharing, and silence, by learning, confessing, listening, and praying. And I would include serving others and walking with God in our daily lives.

God has created us and established a loving relationship with us. We respond by walking, working, and worshipping God—loving God with all that we have and all that we are.

Thanks be to God!

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Order Faith Formation Resources

Are you looking for resources for the summer: VBS, family/intergenerational events, or Sunday school? Check out our Learning Together series, a set of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. You can read outside reviews on both our newest Created to Care and Do Justice units! Our faith formation resources are easy-to-use, theologically sound, and inclusive.

Introducing our newest Learning Together unit: Created to Care! Wonder at God’s creation and learn about what we can do to protect and heal it in these five lessons, intended for children and intergenerational groups, family or churchwide events, or Vacation Bible School. This curriculum is published in collaboration with BibleWorm, a weekly Narrative Lectionary podcast, to accompany their summer series on Creation Care.

Our 2024-2025 resources are available to order! Narrative Lectionary, Revised Common Lectionary, Classic Sunday School, and more.

At Spirit & Truth Publishing, we might just have exactly what you are looking for:

• Resources for the Narrative Lectionary (2024-2025): Products for all ages.
• Classic Sunday School Curriculum: Key Bible stories for PK-2nd and 3rd-6th, also great for your Christian elementary school!
• Learning Together: Five-lesson, topical units for VBS, Sunday school, children, and intergenerational classes.
• Cross+Generational Confirmation
• Resource for the Revised Common Lectionary (2024-2025): Intergenerational classroom, mini lessons for children.
• Worship and Liturgy Education

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