You Are What You Love

Central to God’s character is that he loves. 1 John 4:8 famously says that “he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.” However, when we say that God loves, we are not saying that anything called love is a godly thing. What we mean—because it is what the Bible communicates—is that God is the one who defines what love is. God says there are certain things we are to love, and things we are not to love. If a man were to direct his affection toward something God says not to love, for example a woman other than his wife, then he has violated the will of the One who defines what love is. Whatever that man is doing, he cannot call it love. Actually, he is sinning. If he persists in his actions, he will be known before God and man as an adulterer.

This example highlights an important distinction. While God defines love, humans are different. What we love defines us. Our character and identity is shaped by the things and people we choose to love. The reason is that we humans have the capacity to love good things, or evil things. God can only to love what is right. Again, this is why His nature sends the boundaries for true love. However, we can take the ability to love that God gives us and twist it, directing it toward objects God does not want us to love.

Consider an example. In 1 John 2:15, we are commanded to “love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” The love in verse 15 is the kind of love we normally think of as God’s love; the Greek word for it is agape. It is also the same word used as verse 15 continues: “if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” It is the same word for love, whether John is speaking of loving the world, or the love of the Father. We can spend our God-given ability to love on the world, or by living out the love of the Father as a fruit of the Spirit.

To “love” in 1 John 2:15 is “to take pleasure in a thing, prize it above other things, be unwilling to abandon it or do without it.” You can see how that love translates easily to the Lord. Now think about the warning in 1 John 2:15-17 as it applies to the world. “All that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world” (v. 16). The “world” is full of selfish, self-centered desires. This is why the world’s primary message is for a man to love himself.

Notice something important in verse 15: a man can be full either of the love of God, or the love of the world, but never both. They are mutually exclusive. We will be defined, as we live our lives, either by a love for God, or for a love for the world and its selfishly motivated pursuits.

Practically speaking, the reason what we love defines us is that we will always act on what we love. It will always come out in our behavior. We are like God in this way as well. God is the greatest example of demonstrating His love through action. Here are some examples from 1 John.

 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. (3:1)

Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. (3:16)

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (4:9-10)

God acts on his love, but so does the world. We have already seen in 2:16 what the love of the world looks like in action: the lust of the flesh and eyes, and the pride of life. The world also demonstrates its love through the complement of love, or hate. 3:12 reminds us that Cain killed his brother because he hated the righteousness of God. Therefore, “marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (3:13). The world acts on its love by hating those who represent its enemy, the righteous God.

It is unavoidable that what we love is identified through our actions. Love without action is no love at all. Consider 1 John 3:17: “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” The obvious answer is that, if we behave like that, the love of God is not in us. So then, verse 18 says, “let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 4:20-21 is even clearer that our words and our actions must match, or else we are making false claims. “If a man say, ‘I love God’, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.”

Our love for fellow believers is connected to our love for God. It is impossible to separate them. If we love God, we will love our brothers. If we love our fellow brothers, we demonstrate that we truly love God. “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death” (1 John 3:14).

There is one other place our love for God comes out in our actions. If we truly love God, we love His commands for us. “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (1 John 2:4-5). It is impossible to love God and hate what He commands. Alternately, if we love God, we will show it by doing what He says to do. Our actions do not lie. What you love defines you. You are what you love.

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The above article was written by Jonathan Kyser. He is a pastoral assistant at NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, FL. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.

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