The last blog post was about being renewed in love. I tried to define love as ‘seeking the best in another whatever the personal cost’.

When it comes to loving God, however, that’s not so easy to apply. How can we seek God’s best? He is already perfect, and has no need of anything, so what could we possibly do?

Jesus helps here. He says that if we love him, we will obey his commandments. On a human level, such a statement would set alarm bells ringing. “If you love me, you’ll do what I say” is the kind of statement associated with coercion or manipulation.

But when this statement comes from God it takes on a different meaning. God is the author of love; he is love and so is seeking our best. In his case, of course, he knows exactly what the best for us is. So, to obey God’s commandments is the best thing we can do.

But this is not an external ‘box-ticking’ exercise, done out of a sense of duty.

The Old Testament commands a total love for God (Deut 6:5) and is repeated by Jesus (Mark 12:20). We are to love him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

In my daily readings, the studies I’m following are currently going through the book of Revelation. Interesting!

Chapters 4 and 5 are like a transition from our present world – the one we live in – to the heavenly one. The first chapters are letters to 7 churches and are written in terms we broadly understand and can relate to.

Then John gets a vision of heaven, which is followed by several chapters describing what’s going on there and how that relates to our world – and finally how it will all be drawn to a completion.

His vision in reminiscent of Isaiah 6 – where the very throne room of God is described. A place of awe and majesty where God himself is the centre. His character is proclaimed by worshipping angels with an emphasis on God’s holiness. In Revelation this is developed further with refrains of God’s worthiness. 

Rev 5:11 says that ‘the Lamb who was slain’ is worthy to receive ‘power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!’

Again, that speaks of total devotion.

Then in Rev 11:15 there’s a cry of: “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever”.

Now, God reigns over his creation and always has done (see Psalm 10:16 which uses the same phrase ‘forever and ever’). But this is talking about another kind of kingdom. One in which the subjects are willingly obedient to him. This is the Kingdom of God that Jesus frequently spoke about. It is the ‘kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son’ (Colossians 1:13).

You may have heard a phrase referring to this kingdom – ‘already but not yet’. What that means is that we have the privilege of entering that kingdom in the here and now, but there is a fulfilment, a completion, that is still to come when the effects and consequences of sin will have been dealt with and put away.

I remember one time walking back from a Christian meeting to the place I was living – a house I shared with three others. About that time my parents were moving. They had been running a children’s home for several years which they’d started just as I was finishing school. And now my dad was going into training for ministry, so they were not going to be ‘settled’ for some years to come. And wherever that was, it was never going to be my home. My childhood home, my place of security and memories, had gone forever.

As I was walking, I had this strong realisation that I really belonged with God. That was my real ‘home’, where I really belonged. No place on earth would ever be more than somewhere to live. 

While we wait for that Day (our hope), we live as citizens of the new kingdom. Living by its values – and of course that means being obedient to, in subjection to, its King. 

There’s a great passage in 1 John 5:1-5. It shows what it means to be ‘born of God’, namely people who:

• Believe that Jesus is the Christ
• Love the Father
• Keep his commandments
  • Which are not burdensome!
• Overcome the world

And the way this passage is written shows that these things are effectively the same.

We start by believing, actively trusting that Jesus (the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Saviour) has died for our sins, and that in so doing has enabled us to come as children into the very throne room of God. 

We’ve been adopted into his family; we call him Father. Our response is one of gratefulness, of repentance – turning away from our old ways – and seeking to know his ways and follow them. We develop the ‘family likeness’, becoming like him as we think, speak and behave like him. Which means spending time with our Father, as Jesus did; and loving others, as Jesus commanded.

And so we are able to ‘overcome’ the world, live in a hostile environment, a place that is ‘groaning’ as it waits for Jesus’ return. Because our real home, our real citizenship is not here, but with God.

How can we not love him?