Loving God: A Life or Death Issue
March 17, 2019      |     By: Sam McVay, Jr.      |      Category: Primers      |      Location: El Dorado
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1 Corinthians 16:21-24 (ESV)
21 “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand.
22 If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
24 My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

1 Corinthians 16:22 (AMPC)
22 If anyone does not love the Lord [does not have a friendly affection for Him and is not kindly disposed toward Him], he shall be accursed! Our Lord will come! (Maranatha!)

Loving God is more than an, “optional pursuit” for those that are more, “serious” about their spiritual life.

Loving God is not just a, “suggested command” among many commands.

No. Loving God is actually a matter of life or death, of being blessed or cursed.

Paul believed in more than just a doctrinal salvation which comes from knowing the right information.

Any salvation that did not result in growing wholehearted love of God above all other loves, was no salvation at all to Paul.

Paul placed a high priority for loving God:

Ephesians 6:24 (NIV)
24 “Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.”

2 Timothy 4:8-10 (NIV)
8 “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
9 Do your best to come to me quickly,
10 for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.”

Really the Bible is very serious about joy-filled heart-level love of God!

Deuteronomy 28:47-48 (NIV)
47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,
48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

For clarity:
God is not threatening humans to love him or else, as though loving him is an undesirable thing that we must do to win His favor.

He is inviting all peoples to receive his salvation so they are transformed to love Him and to declare His praise! 

1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
9 “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

The glory of a true Christian is that they have been saved and made new so that they may fulfill the purpose of all mankind which is wholehearted love of God and a life of declaring His praises.

The tragedy of an unbeliever is that they are slaves to sin and so are unable to fulfill the purpose of mankind which is to be a wholehearted lover of God living a life of declaring His praises.

So, we are to pray hard and accurately disciple saints into being lovers of God.

And we should be offended and moved to evangelism by the reality that God is not being loved or praised by the lost. 

Deuteronomy 30:6 (ESV)
6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.