Spiritually Speaking: Religious Love

So many times I hear Christians use the excuse, “Well, God only looks at the heart,” in order to cover up for various contradictions in their lives. And it’s true, the Lord doesn’t try to make the outer shell perfect, because it will never be.

However, God has guidelines in the Scripture for a reason—to protect us and keep us away from the enemy’s grasps.

Natural parents set rules for their children with the intention of providing the utmost care; they hope to watch their children succeed. They know better—they’ve been in their shoes before.

So has Jesus.

God wants us to love Him religiously, not to love our religion.

In other words, the reason we should obey His commandments is because we love Him and understand that He only said what He said for our own good.

In fact, He cannot honor our actions if they are not done out of faith and love. As James 2:26 (KJV) says, “…faith without works is dead.” The two have to go together or the equation will fail every time.

Of course we’ll always make mistakes; but our desire should be to walk as close to His Word as possible, not excluding certain verses and making excuses why.

So instead of moaning and groaning that being a Christian is so hard, and that we have to do this and that, let’s just allow our hearts to fall madly in love with God first.

Soon enough, loving Him will be the same as pleasing Him. And pleasing Him will mean keeping our lives clean as the power of His Spirit helps us overcome all opposing forces.