ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH HIM?

Neal Pollard

One of my very favorite writers, David McCullough, once wrote,

Imagine a man who professes over and over his unending love for a

woman but who knows nothing of where she was born or who her

parents were or where she went to school or what her life had been

until he came along–and furthermore, doesn’t care to learn.  What

would you think of such a person (Brave Companions, 222).

McCullough was talking of Americans who have no interest in our nation’s rich, incredible history.  If one is ignorant of the unbelievable twists and turns in the road this country has taken from British territory to world superpower, he or she is deprived of a necessary context to appreciate what we have and who we are today.  Such ignorance will also seem to rob them of the gratitude and respect for the sacrifices of our forebears.

More incredible is the case of one who professes love and loyalty to a Christ about whom they really know little or who care to know little.  They assemble with others once or twice a week to sing to Him, pray to Him, and memorialize Him, but they spend no time reading about Him or developing a real, intimate relationship with Him.  Such a person cannot fully appreciate His body (the church), His authority (in worship, in doctrine, and over their personal ethics and morality), or His purpose for their lives.  No amount of talent for singing, eloquence of speech, or pious appearance among others assembled can make up for a Sunday through Saturday spent disconnected from Him.

Jesus warned against a religion of lip-service and feigned devotion, when the heart was not in it (cf. Matt. 15:8-9).  He preaches the importance of an inside-out religion (Mark 12:33).  The great preacher and apostle Paul, while speaking of some others whose motives were muddled and whose practice was at odds with their profession (cf. Phil. 1:15-17), could say of himself, “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Phil. 3:7-10).

To truly love and appreciate Him, you must come to know Him!  It must be a passion and a burning desire.  You cannot count of trying to ignite a flame only when you are assembled on Sundays and Wednesdays.  If it is the exercise of a few hours a week, at best you will be like the person describes by McCullough.  But, if you can develop a yearning and practice like Paul’s, you will be deeply in love with the Savior and you will enjoy the most satisfying relationship it is possible to have in all time and eternity.